DUI leader Ali Ahmeti issued a threat to the public that, if the Constitutional Court brings down the law on the use of languages, “Albanians will rise up”. The former warlord secured the law from former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, at a time when Zaev was desperate for Albanian votes in Parliament to keep his Government afloat, but it is widely seen as unconstitutional.

Following the publication of his statement, Ahmeti’s DUI party issued a press release to clarify what he meant. “During a meeting in the DUI branch in Shuto Orizari, we discussed the humiliations, the firing of Albanians from public service, the attempts to abolish the use of the Albanian language, the balancing regulation for public sector hiring, the undermining of all that the Albanians have achieved”, the party said.

The Constitutional Court recently struck down the bylaw that regulated hiring of ethnic minorities based on their proportion in the latest census, which prompted Ahmeti to focus his opposition activities toward attacking the Government.