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Roundup: Clashes between Macedonia's political camps deepen as parliament fails to appoint new speaker

Xinhua, March 28, 2017 Adjust font size:

The parliament of Macedonia was engulfed by strong debates and trade of barbs Tuesday as the two main political camps, namely the conservative VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, holding parliamentary majority, have different views regarding the election of new Speaker.

The Macedonian Social Democratic Union (SDSM) has proposed the Democratic Union of Macedonia (DUI) MP, Talat Xhaferi for the post of the speaker of Parliament.

The election of the speaker of Parliament requires 61 votes out of the 120-seat parliament. However, the coalition led by head of SDSM Zoran Zaev has failed to approve this candidacy after one of the coalition allies, the party of ethnic Albanians BESA, said no.

According to officials of BESA, the candidate proposed by DUI has been part of the governing cabinet of Nikola Gruevski so he couldn't carry out reforms that the country needs.

However, the social democrat MP, Petre Silegov, declared Tuesday that SDSM-led coalition had collected the 20 signatures that are required to propose a candidate for this post. According to Silegaov, SDSM would exploit any legal possibility to unblock work in parliament.

On the other hand, VMRO-DPMNE led by Nikola Gruevski said SDSM's attempt to introduce the election of the speaker of Parliament in the agenda was a breach of the regulation of parliament.

VMRO-DPMNE officials said that the members of the Parliamentary Commission for Nominations must be elected first and then the speaker.

VMRO-DPMNE MPs reiterated the demand for fresh general elections, while they called on SDSM to reject the platform of ethnic Albanian parties.

While addressing MPs, SDSM MP Petre Silegov said that Macedonia would have soon a new, reform -oriented government focused on bringing a "good life" to citizens here and on advancing Euro-Atlantic agenda.

He called on VMRO-DPMNE to accept the fact that it is an opposition party while he asked the party representatives to stop obstructing the democratic processes and start respecting the citizens' agreement, media here reported.

But, on its part, VMRO­-DPMNE official Antonio Milososki told a press conference that VMRO-DPMNE had prepared a roadmap for lessons to be learned and a solution to be offered to the current political crisis and a way out of other political crises.

VMRO­-DPMNE proposes the establishment of a nonpartisan agreement laying the groundwork for principled settlement of internal differences in the future solely in the frameworks of state institutions without foreign agendas or representatives and exclusively by legitimately elected representatives of the citizens in Macedonia, he said.

He added that VMRO-DPMNE roadmap condemns the foreigners' interference into Macedonia's internal affairs as well as general denouncement of plans and platforms or agendas that are against Macedonia's strategic and state interests.

Thus, although the Tuesday plenary session aimed at continuing with the procedures to appoint the new Speaker, the session was closed with no agreement in this regard.

Therefore, Parliament is expected to resume Wednesday the constitutive session and the debate on election of the Committee on Election and Appointment Issues. Endit