Izet Mexhiti, one of VLEN’s leaders, criticized BDI today for what he called misuse of the Badinter principle. In a Facebook post, he said BDI was trying to use the principle to block the law allowing the bar exam to be taken in Albanian.
According to Mexhiti, BDI is boasting that it will prevent the law’s passage in Parliament. He stressed that the Badinter principle is a constitutional mechanism created to protect Albanians from being outvoted by the majority.
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Mexhiti recalled that the principle emerged from negotiations over the Ohrid Agreement, in which, he said, the parties were not political parties but Albanians and Macedonians. For that reason, he said, the double-majority voting requirement was not introduced so Albanians could block one another or Albanian parties could use it in their rivalries. Its purpose, Mexhiti said, was to protect Albanians from being outvoted by the majority, not to allow some Albanians to outvote others.
He warned that using the Badinter principle for party interests today could trigger a domino effect tomorrow: political groups might seek ways to manipulate the double-majority vote and outvote Albanians.
Mexhiti said the Albanian opposition should not use the Badinter principle to block a law that expands Albanians’ rights. According to him, the law will allow Albanian students, for the first time in the country’s history, to take the bar exam in their mother tongue.
