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 emphasized that the veto decision is not intended “to insult any language, or to follow party advice”, but, as she said, to encourage the revision of some provisions of the above-mentioned 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.