Veles Mayor Kocevski says that next time he will walk out of an Albanian – only press conference

Impacted by the implementation of the new law on the use of the Albanian language, Veles Mayor Ace Kocevski said that in the future he will not accept to be “used for decoration” and attend press conferences where he doesn’t understand what is being said. Kocevski, who comes from the SDSM led coalition which pushed the law through Parliament and began enforcing it despite it not being signed into law by the President, had an incident with Education Minister Arber Ademi on Monday, when Ademi insisted to respond in Albanian

We were there to discuss the situation of three Albanian school children from the village of Gorno Karaslari, who attend school in Dolno Karslari in Macedonian and not in Albanian. I resent very much the situation when journalists from Albanian media ask their questions in Albanian, and they are talking about Veles, about our high schools and our education. The Minister responded in Albanian, and there was no interpreter, Kocevski said.

During the press conference, he interrupted Ademi’s answer and loudly demanded to be told what is going on. As most ethnic Albanians living in Macedonia speak Macedonia, while most Macedonians don’t speak Albanian, Kocevski was unable to follow his own press conference, and Ademi insisted to finish his response in Albanian, saying that next time there will be an interpreter present. Kocevski remained during the answer, looking sullen.

According to the law, the Albanian language will be used in official capacity all over Macedonia, not only in municipalities where Albanians are at least 20 percent of the population, as provided by the Constitution.