Macedonia’s parliament declares Albanian 2nd official state language

CAIRO – 16 November 2017: Macedonia’s parliament approved on Wednesday a draft law declaring the Albanian language as the state’s second official language amid severe criticism by the conservative opposition.


The draft law was passed with the approval of 66 MPs, while only 41 members rejected the law, ABC News reported. They added that such a law will broaden the use of Albanian, an Indo-European language, around the East European state, facilitating communication for the Albanian people, who represent 25% of the state’s population.


The previous law was drawn in the wake of a peace agreement that put an end to the military conflict between the Albanian rebels and the Macedonian government in 2001, which concluded with the Albanian language being formally used in communities represented by more than 20% Albanians, who are a minority in the country.


The opposition said it rejected the new law as it does not work on improving relations between the ethnic groups.


The official and most widely spoken language is Macedonian, which belongs to the eastern branch of the South Slavic language group. In municipalities where ethnic groups are represented with over 20% of the total population, the language of that ethnic group is co-official, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.