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Parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi is confronted by Parliament member Nikola Gruevski during the parliament session in Skopje | Photo: EPA/ Georgi Licovski

While Albania and Kosovo have praised Macedonia’s new government, led by the Social Democrats, for improving Albanian language rights, nationalist critics at home have savaged the change as unconstitutional.

Macedonian police on Thursday confirmed that the car of one Social Democrat MP, Slavica Shumanska-Miteva, was set on fire in the town of Vinica on Wednesday night.

Shumanska-Miteva said that she suspected that the attack was inspired by Wednesday’s violent scenes in parliament.

“Vandals are behind this, encouraged by yesterday’s conduct of the [opposition] VMRO DPMNE MPs, when they tried to prevent the vote,” she told Fokus daily.

Police also reported arresting one person on Wednesday night in front of the parliament building in Skopje, after a search determined he carried baton and rocks.

On the other hand, leaders in Kosovo and Albania welcomed Wednesday’s adoption of the long-anticipated law that extends the use of the Albanian language in Macedonia.

“I greet the determination to approve the law … as an important historical and important act, not only for Albanians but also for the European future of Macedonia,” the President of Albania, Ilir Meta, wrote on Facebook.

Ditmir Bushati, Albania’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, called it an important achievement.

“The passage of this law after the refusal of the [Macedonian] President and the obstructionist behavior of some specific segments of the old politics, is a great achievement for Albanians as a state-forming population,” Bushati wrote.

The Macedonian parliament adopted the law on Wednesday in a tense atmosphere.

Minutes before the vote, former prime minister and former leader of the VMRO DPMNE party Nikola Gruevski went behind speaker Talat Xhaferi’s desk and tried to meddle with his electronic equipment.

Tension peaked when Gruevski had a brief scuffle with the speaker, prompting the parliament’s security force to intervene and separate the two.

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov, who already vetoed the law in January, and is now obliged to sign it, also opposed the decision, and said that despite his constitutional duties, he would not sign the act, which may further complicate his relations with the new government.

While the government insists the law will make life easier for ethnic Albanians in the country and boost their loyalty to it, the opposition insists it goes against the constitution and endangers national unity.

Kosovo’s President, Hashim Thaci, meanwhile said that it was good news not only for the Albanian community but for the entire region.

“There is good will for coexistence, respecting cultural diversity and dignity and integrity of every citizen,” Klan Kosova TV quoted Thaci as saying.

The Kosovo Prime Minister, Ramush Haradinaj, called it a major step forward, for Albanian rights and for respect for civic values.

“The Macedonian parliament’s decision enhances relations between the communities living in the country, promotes its democratic development and opens the country’s perspective towards Euro-Atlantic integrations,” Haradinaj wrote on Facebook.

The speaker of Kosovo parliament, Kadri Veseli, also greeted a move towards “the fulfillment of a legitimate and essential right.

“This event marks an important step in the fulfillment of the Ohrid Agreement and the achievement of the high human rights standards required in the framework of Euro-Atlantic integration,” Veseli wrote.

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