"It is clear to everyone that the new constitution of Macedonia was voted under enormous military and economic pressure. The writers of the bloody scenario that has been unfolding in Macedonia for the last ten months are too powerful for us to oppose them. They are certainly not Albanians from Macedonia, but someone much more powerful."
With these words, Macedonian Prime Minister Ljupco Georgijevski commented on the latest constitutional changes that coincidentally came into force on November 18, the same day that the Macedonian Assembly celebrated the tenth anniversary of the first Macedonian constitution. Just two days before that solemn act, the members of the Macedonian parliament adopted 94 amendments to the new constitution with 13 votes "for" and 15 "against". Out of 23 Albanian MPs, 21 voted. Only MPs of the newly formed ultra-nationalist National Democratic Party, Kastriot Hadzireja and Fadil Bajrami, did not vote.
The biggest fight in the Assembly took place over the text of the preamble to the constitution. The second largest party of Albanians in Macedonia, the Party of Democratic Prosperity (PDP) opposed the wording, which was also supported by European Commissioner Javier Solana, but in the end, under pressure from the West, the PDP gave way. In return, Western diplomats promised this party that they would support its demands regarding the law on amnesty for ONA members and regarding the higher education of Albanians.
The new preamble of the Constitution now reads: "Citizens of the Republic of Macedonia, the Macedonian people and citizens living within its borders who are part of the Albanian people, the Turkish people, the Wallachian people, the Serbian people, the Roma people, the Bosniak people and others..."
NEWCOMERS: Newcomers in the proposal-preamble are Serbs and Bosniaks, who until now belonged to the "others". Some Macedonian officials justified the absence of Serbs in the preamble by saying that the Constitution of Macedonia was passed at the time of the dissolution of the SFR Yugoslavia, when it was impossible to impose the status of a national minority on the "heavenly people". After that, the Serbs were simply forgotten for ten years. As for the Bosniaks, they entered the preamble at the last moment, as it were, after the harsh reactions of the president of the Party of Democratic Action for Macedonia, Avdije Pepič.
The change of the constitutional preamble was the request that the representatives of the Albanian political parties in Macedonia insisted on the most. The Albanians demanded that Macedonia be defined as the state of the Macedonian and Albanian people, but they were also apparently satisfied with the "neutral" wording about the "communities" living in Macedonia. This formulation, however, could not pass in the Macedonian political bloc. This impersonal formulation of "communities", which was established by the Ohrid Agreement, was also attacked by the former president of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov.
For the Macedonian political bloc, the preamble of the Constitution containing the wording "Macedonian people" is perhaps more important for external than for internal use. The denial of the existence of the Macedonian people, which comes from the official Athens and Sofia, is perceived by Macedonians as a serious reason to make a clear distinction in the preamble of the Constitution between the majority Macedonian people and other entities that live in an ethnically mixed area, which coincidentally has the same name as the mixed fruit salad that The Italians call MACEDONIA.
The absence of the wording "Macedonian people" could, in the opinion of political officials in Skopje, increase the appetites of the "deniers" and weaken Macedonia's position in the negotiations regarding the name of the state with Greece. The Macedonian church leadership thought in a similar way and insisted that the wording "Macedonian Orthodox Church" remain in Article 19 of the Constitution, which, in the opinion of the church leaders, would strengthen the position of the MPC in the negotiations on autocephaly.
ALBANIAN-OFFICIALLY: The new constitution stipulates that in addition to Macedonian official languages, there will also be languages of communities that make up at least 20 percent of the population. This article practically makes the Albanian language official, and other languages of "parts of the people" living in Macedonia also become official at the local level. The only question is in which municipalities which languages will be in official use, because the adoption of the new law on local self-government, which is foreseen by the Ohrid Agreement, is yet to come.
Although the Western mediators verbally rejected the Albanians' demands for consensual democracy through negotiations, it can be said that the new constitution still contains provisions that can be qualified as "consensual". Constitutional amendments, the law on local self-government, laws in the fields of culture, language, education, personal documents, the law on the use of symbols and in local elections will not be able to be passed if they are not voted for in addition to the required majority in the parliament and at least 51 percent of the deputies who belong to minorities communities.
The provision on the proportional representation of minority communities in the state administration will certainly bring problems. This practically means that in the next few years, when 20.000 civil servants will have to leave the public administration due to reforms, thousands of Albanians will be employed in the same administration. What will be the reactions of those who will lose their jobs can be assumed, and it can also be assumed who, in the eyes of the average Macedonian, will be the main culprit for high unemployment, which, admittedly, is already between 40 and 50 percent.
"Positive discrimination" in favor of Albanians will also exist when enrolling in state universities. Thus, often, weaker students of Albanian nationality will have a higher chance of enrollment compared to better Macedonians. Reactions can again be guessed. In addition, the University of Tetovo, better known as "Stul's University", should start working these days, where more than 90 percent of the students will be of Albanian nationality. Even that is not enough for the PDP, so this party is also asking for the legalization of the university in Mala Rečica near Tetovo.
"A city of eighty thousand people, and two universities... no matter what Cambridge, what Oxford, this is Tetovo, sorry TETOVA", says angrily 35-year-old Andon from Skopje, who, together with his friends, has been protesting in front of the Assembly of Macedonia for several days due to the adoption of constitutional amendments .
DISBELIEF: Despite the adoption of the new constitution, few in Macedonia believe that the appetites of the Albanians will be satisfied and that the guns will finally fall silent. The "disarmed and disbanded" ONA, which is now called the ANA, continues its provocations, or more precisely, continues to occupy twenty villages in Kumanovo and Tetovo. A few days ago, three police special forces paid with their lives for a dangerous approach to ANA positions near the village of Treboš in Tetovo. The special forces were supposed to secure the location, which is supposed to be the mass grave of a dozen kidnapped Macedonians. The final decision on the exhumation should be made after the meeting of the Macedonian political leadership with Carla del Ponte, who is coming to Skopje these days. Since the guys from ONA have already been amnestied by President Trajkovski's statement, Del Ponte will probably have a tough job choosing which guys to eventually indict.
And finally, a few words about the "carrot" with which the West practically managed to change the Macedonian constitution. The European Union has promised aid to Macedonia in the amount of 70 million euros, and a donor conference is planned, where an additional 100 million euros in non-returnable aid is expected, which would serve to fill the budget hole that exceeds 350 million euros.
However, the holding of the donors' conference is conditional on reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. "Until such an agreement is reached, no one will want to provide macro-financial assistance, and we want the contribution to Macedonia to be maximal," said European Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten just a few days after the amendment was voted on.
