The Macedonian president vetoes the Law on the Protection of Children

2025-01-07 17:08:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Macedonian president vetoes the Law on the Protection of Children

The President of North Macedonia, Gordana Silanovska-Davkova

The President of North Macedonia, Gordana Silanovska-Davkova, has exercised her first veto since she was elected in May last year, by not enacting the Child Protection Law, which, among other things, provided that licenses for nursery school guardians to be in the Albanian language, in addition to the Macedonian language.

In a statement to the media on Tuesday, she stressed that the veto decision is not intended to "offend any language, or follow party advice", but, as she said, to encourage the revision of some provisions of the aforementioned law, especially articles 9 and 10.

With these two articles, the law provides that, in addition to the Macedonian language, the language spoken by 20 percent of the citizens should also be included in the licenses.

Silanovska in her explanation says that the disputed articles 9 and 10 of this law should be re-examined in the light of the fifth amendment of the Constitution and the existing Law on the use of languages, which is currently contested in the Constitutional Court.

"I only called for articles 9 and 10 to be re-examined once again and to review if this way of obtaining and equipping with a license will not bring room for discretionary authorization. I am not biased, but the parties that seek qualifications are", said Siljanovska-Davkova.

The Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, on the other hand, assured that the provisions disputed by the president will be corrected, and the same will be returned for procedure in the Assembly.

"I think it is routine and formality. They will be corrected and will be in accordance with the Constitution and the Law on Languages, they will return to the parliamentary procedure and I expect the successful approval of this law", said Mickoski on Tuesday.

Mickoski recalled that the official language throughout the territory of the state is the Macedonian language, adding that those who wish for the forms for the exam and license to be issued in the Albanian language will have this right.

What is the Child Protection Law?

With this law, recently passed in the Assembly, the system and organization of child protection is regulated, and it is realized through the provision of certain rights, means and forms for the protection of children.

Amendments to the Child Protection Law were approved on December 24 last year, with a double majority. A total of 63 deputies voted for and 14 against.

The public learned about the president's veto of this law through the reactions of the opposition, specifically the SDSM and the Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI).

The former welcomed the decision, while the latter assessed it as an open attack on the Albanian language.

"We welcome the non-signing of the decree by the country's president, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova. We ask the Government to withdraw from its intentions due to the contradictory provisions. Article 9 and Article 10 of the Draft Law for changes proposed by the Government imply the introduction of bilingual licenses in the field of child protection. It is debatable that this segment is regulated by another law that regulates the use of languages, as well as by the country's Constitution", they said on Sunday through a communiqué from the SDSM.

However, DUI said that it strongly condemns the "scandalous veto" of the president Gordana Silanovska-Davkova towards bilingualism.

"This is not an isolated action, but a clearly coordinated strategy. Initially, the leader of VLEN, Afrim Gashi, came out with a statement to prepare the opinion against the Albanian language and to create an alibi for this movement, and immediately after that, the rabid anti-Albanian nationalism was activated to deny and attack everything Albanian. ", said DUI.

On December 31, President Gordana Silanovska-Davkova sent a notice to the Speaker of the Assembly, Afrim Gashi, that she will not sign the decree on the Law on the Protection of Children, as according to her, the voted amendments contain some controversial provisions.

This refers to the amendments for bilingual licenses.

Davkova had said that the envisaged articles of the law should be re-examined in the light of amendment 5 of the Constitution and the existing law on the use of languages.

"I remind you that the way of using the Macedonian language and its Cyrillic writing, and the language spoken by at least 20% of the citizens and its writing are already regulated by law," says Silanovska's explanation.

From the coalition of Albanian parties, VLEN, part of the Government, have not yet come up with a common position on the issue of changes to the Law on the Protection of Children.

However, Deputy Prime Minister Arben Fetai, representative of VLEN, in a statement given on Monday, assured that the licenses "will also be in the Albanian language".

According to the Law, if the president decides not to sign the decree for the promulgation of the law, the Assembly reconsiders the law in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, within 30 days from the date of its approval.

During the review of the law, amendments can be brought only with the signature of the president of the state.

If, during the reconsideration, the Assembly approves the law with at least 61 votes, President Silanovska-Davkova is obliged to sign the decree for its promulgation.

The law on the protection of children is now expected to be processed and will be submitted to the Assembly again./REL