English
After Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that he is opening discussions to change the Communist era coat of arms, Bilal Kasami from the VLEN coalition said that they will ask for a change in the way the Albanian language is mentioned in the Constitution.
Macedonia was on the verge of changing the coat of arms in 2015, but the process was stopped by the start of the Colored Revolution. The current coat of arms was adopted by the Communist Party after the Second World War and is a typical communist style emblem, representing geographic features, wheat, tobacco and poppies. The only intervention in it was the removal of the Communist red star that was originally on top.
Since only Macedonia and Belarus still have these types of emblems, the 2015 proposal was to replace it with a red lion on a yellow shield, which was used in medieval times to represent Macedonia.
Since Albanians do not associate with the lion symbol, Kasami said that they would like something in exchange for supporting the change of the coat of arms. The Albanian parties want the use of the term “language spoken by at least 20 percent of the population” that determines the official use of the Albanian language to be scrapped, and replaced with the term “Albanian language”. This would solidify Macedonia’ status as a bilingual country.
Meanwhile, SDSM said that they are opposed to changes to the coat of arms. According to the opposition party, the current symbol is heritage from the partisan struggle during the Second World War and should remain in use.
