Tetovo veterans’ union urges Assembly to amend street-naming law

The Union of Fighters of Tetovo has formally asked the Assembly to change the Law on Naming of Streets, proposing rules similar to the 2022 amendments to the Law on Associations and Foundations to block the use of names tied to fascist ideology.

Union seeks explicit legal ban on fascist-related names

According to the petition sent to parliamentary parties, the union wants the law expanded so that naming of streets, squares, bridges and other infrastructure cannot carry the names of individuals or organizations associated with fascism, Nazism, terrorism or their manifestations. The aim is to prevent municipal efforts to adopt such names.

Municipal officials in Tetovo have already prepared two lists compiled by a local working group for naming and renaming streets; together those lists contain more than 200 proposed names for the city. The Union of Fighters has repeatedly protested specific entries on those lists that, in the official Macedonian historical record, are considered connected to fascist ideology.

Union leaders say their request follows earlier legislative action, when parliament tightened rules in 2022 to prevent registration of Bulgarian pro-fascist clubs under the Law on Associations and Foundations. They now want the Assembly to act consistently and extend similar safeguards to the naming law.

“We expect the Assembly to be consistent with its previous decisions from 2022. Just as it is not permissible and not right to register fascist associations of citizens. Likewise, it is not right to assign street names after fascists and their collaborators. Therefore, we expect that the MPs and parliamentary groups will be cooperative among themselves, and with the Union of Fighters, and will recognize the need to improve the legal regulation and that appropriate changes will enter the parliamentary procedure immediately,” said Darijan Sotirovski, a member of the presidency of the Union of Fighters of Tetovo.

The Union’s initiative asks MPs to open the amendment procedure without delay. Municipal and civic actors in Tetovo are watching whether the Assembly will respond by drafting and submitting concrete changes to the Law on Naming of Streets and related regulations.

Photo: press material from the event