The naming and renaming of several streets in the Municipality of Tetovo has opened a wide debate between the central and local governments in North Macedonia, despite both parties being part of a governing coalition.
In the May elections, the Government was formed by VMRO-DPMNE, the coalition of Albanian parties VLEN and the ZNAM party. Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski states that the agreement between the coalition partners only provides for the naming of streets that do not have names, excluding any possibility of changing existing names.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Mickoski stressed that "any unilateral decision to rename streets will not be accepted."
According to data from the Municipality of Tetovo, the city has a total of 265 streets, of which 111 are named, 113 are numbered and 41 are unnamed.
The head of this municipality, Bilall Kasami, said that names will be decided for streets that currently have numbers or are unnamed, while for streets with existing names, he said that the special commission – in which all parties have representatives – will assess whether these names will remain or be changed.
"The government says that there will be no change by imposing street names at any moment. The Municipality of Tetovo does not have a process of imposing the change of street names. From the beginning we have been talking about a process of naming streets, using all democratic and legal mechanisms," Kasami said on Tuesday during a meeting with journalists.
Kasami, who also leads the Besa Movement - part of the VALEN coalition - added that street names should reflect the present and the European concept, as the current names "have no connection to the history of the city and the state."
Meanwhile, there were reactions to this from the Union of Macedonian Fighters and Citizens, who demanded that Kassam's initiative "be condemned by all political parties, non-governmental organizations and citizens."
The VMRO-DPMNE group of advisors to the Tetovo Municipal Council said that "we will never act against Macedonian national interests," although they agreed to discuss only roads that do not have names, as well as roads that are registered only by number.
On the other hand, the opposition Social Democratic League (LSDM) publicly condemned Kassam's initiative, saying it "attempts to create ethnic divisions and tensions."
"SDSM councilors will stand strongly against the renaming of streets. As a coalition partner of Kasam, we demand that Mickoski publicly call on him to withdraw from this proposal," declared Andriana Tomovska, a member of the SDSM Executive Board, on January 27.
Kasami had previously stated that the process of naming and changing streets is a sensitive one, recalling that such an initiative has not been undertaken for 30 years.
Last summer, he also formed a working group to deal with the renaming of streets. The working group is tasked with compiling a proposed list of streets and submitting it to the municipal council, which will then, if approved, advance it to the relevant institutions. This decision does not include changing the names of schools and public institutions.
Similar initiatives have been undertaken by previous heads of the Municipality of Tetova, but have never been completed. In addition, some streets named in Albanian are used only by the Municipality of Tetova in communication with citizens, while names from the former Yugoslavia period continue to appear in official documents. /REL (A2 Televizion)
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