Gostivar, 11 February 2024 (MIA) — A change is going to come in the ethnic Albanian bloc after 24 years and no one can stop this change, Alliance for Albanians president Arben Taravari said Saturday evening in Gostivar at a party meeting held under the motto "The Change has Begun."

Asked if he would officially enter a coalition with North Macedonia's Albanian opposition, Taravari said the parties needed to hold talks on a joint election platform first.

"We still don't have a platform with the opposition parties," Taravari said. "This week I would also like to hear from people in several cities. That's why we went to Kumanovo. The people have positive energy. Next week I may meet with the Albanian opposition parties' presidents, sit down to talk to them and decide when to enter an official coalition with a platform."

Asked if he would be forming a new party, he said: "If anyone thinks that the Alliance for Albanians is someone's property and that they brought it from home, we will take it to their home and return it." 

"But the party belongs to the voters, to the membership, to the people who support it," he added.

Ahead of the Gostivar meeting, Taravari said in a Facebook post that the issue of who would lead the AA party would be taken to court.

"Our cause is change. Attempts by DUI and their screenwriter [Artan] Grubi to defocus us on whose party this is and whom it belongs to did not work.

"As of today, we will no longer deal with this matter. They can take their complaints to court. Ours are the changes that have begun. May 8 is getting closer every day," Taravari wrote.

Earlier in the day, at the central assembly of the party held in Skopje, a motion was adopted to dismiss Arben Taravari from his post as Alliance for Albanians president, central assembly chair and former AA leader Zijadin Sela told a news conference Saturday. mr/