The United Macedonian Diaspora said that it strongly opposes the proposed law for the use of languages, which will expand the official use of the Albanian language outside of areas where Albanians are 20 percent of the population, and will include central institutions and companies.
"The United Macedonian Diaspora (UMD) expresses its profound disappointment with the language law proposed by Macedonia’s ruling coalition government and expresses its strong opposition against it. This law will be put before Parliament on September 13th and aims to codify Albanian as an official language throughout the Republic of Macedonia. The proposed law is both unconstitutional and divisive and goes far beyond the already deeply-flawed Ohrid Framework Agreement of 2001, brokered by the U.S. and EU, which was designed, then, to put a final end to such talk and demands. Rather than uniting the people of Macedonia, this law serves solely to further divide Macedonia along ethnic lines, which is completely antithetical to Macedonia and its government’s goals of peace with its neighbors and stability throughout the region. Rather than partitioning ourselves into ethnic enclaves, Macedonians of all backgrounds ought to remain united under a singular official language – the Macedonian language", UMD said in its press release.
According to the association of Macedonians living abroad, the ethnic Albanians minority in Macedonia already enjoy the highest possible level of linguistic rights and the push to pass such a law is another "unprovoked assault on the culture and identity of the Macedonian people".
