Tetovo street‑naming dispute escalates after Constitutional Court ruling

North Macedonia’s Constitutional Court annulled a 2007 municipal decision that had given Albanian‑language names to several streets and squares in Tetovo, saying the municipality had failed to obtain the required central‑government approval under the law governing street naming. The court stressed that the substance of the names was irrelevant and that the key issue was whether the procedure was lawful.

Opposition parties, led by the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), responded with street protests on 11 July, accusing the Tetovo municipal council of removing their proposal to rename the streets from the agenda “clandestinely”. BDI demanded the resignation of mayor Bilall Kasami and called for an immediate re‑naming of the stripped‑off streets. The ruling party’s VLEN bloc rejected the accusations, claiming the protests were about lost political privileges, not the city’s interests. Accusations of a secret agreement between VMRO‑DPMNE, BDI and VLEN have also been aired. Both the court and political actors have called for a legal and institutional resolution to the naming controversy.