Prime Minister Zoran Zaev addressed Monday Government-hosted reception on the occasion of the “May 5 – Macedonian Language Day”, which is observed for the first time after the Government recently set it as an annual working holiday.

The ceremony, attended by members of the Government, academicians, professors and scholars, was organized a day later due to election activities the previous day.

Once again, I send a clear message that this Government is sincerely and strongly committed to nurturing and promoting the Macedonian language, the eternal memory of our existence as a people. Our homeland, as Blaze Koneski was saying, Prime Minister Zaev said before the attendees.

He added that the Government is committed to taking care for the correct use of the Macedonian language and mentioned that besides the cooperation with the Institute for the Macedonian Language to provide internet access to the “Orthography of the Macedonian language”, efforts were invested to make available other works to the citizens for free.

At the same time, Prime Minister Zaev noted that the main goal of organizing the event is to hear all indications and proposals for a comprehensive and strategic approach in order to identify the best possible ways for creating conditions for development and promotion of the Macedonian language.

In the discussion, which was later developed by the present, the Government expressed the satisfaction of its initiative to declare May 5 a holiday observing the Macedonian language, and proposals were made for keeping and nurturing the Macedonian language, as well as initiatives to invest in capacities aimed at affirming the use of Macedonian language at home and abroad.

The government-hosted reception was followed by a debate at the Krste Misirkov Macedonian Language Institute, which focused on standard language use among the general public as well as within different lexicons.

The government declared May 5 as Macedonian Language Day on April 16, 2019. The day was chosen to honor May 5, 1945, when the Macedonian alphabet was officially adopted.