Opposition wants functions to participate in reforms?


The opposition to propose the state public prosecutor, the SEC presidents and the Anti-Corruption Commission, and have representatives and influence in other control and regulatory bodies, such as the Council of MRTV, the Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media … According to party sources, this are part of the demands that VMRO-DPMNE conditioned its return to parliament, and its participation in the reform process.

VMRO-DPMNE leader Hrisitjan Mickoski said in an interview with Radio “Slobodna Evropa” yesterday that the party has political demands in the ongoing process of talks with SDSM, which is expected to be finished very soon. On the “mathematical condition”, which means completion of the VMRO-DPMNE parliamentary group, after the detentions to which six deputies were sentenced for the events on April 27, it is almost fulfilled.

We have our own requests, and this document will be very soon known and presented to the public. The second condition is mathematical, which we can say is largely fulfilled. In the past period, negotiations between the two parties, SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE took place, I expect these days, very soon, for the enigma surrounding those political demands that VMRO-DPMNE had to be resolved. In parallel with those negotiations, the negotiations on reform laws were under way,” said Mickoski.

According to our information, VMRO-DPMNE proposes that the members of such control bodies be elected with a two-thirds majority instead of an absolute majority. This way, it would be necessary to have an agreement between the majority and the opposition for filling in the official positions, as was the case only with the State Election Commission. Allegedly, the majority is interested in certain concessions in this direction, although the basic commitment is in the reform of these institutions, some of which have already started the processes, to go mainly to professionalization and setting specific criteria for conjugation and choice on the staff.

VMRO-DPMNE has no official confirmation of such alleged requests. Party leaders say there is already an agreement on the SEC, and that the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Public Prosecutor’s Office are not part of the package stemming from the Reinhardt Priebe report. According to sources from the opposition, the six major working groups between VMRO-DPMNE do not set political demands beyond the Priebe recommendations and the criteria for EU and NATO.
On the other hand, the agreement to restore the old SEC’s concept when the opposition was proposed by the chairman of this commission was announced after the last tete-a-tete meeting in the government between VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski and the prime minister and SDSM leader Zoran Zaev. Back then, the return of the old SEC model was presented as an interim solution, until extensive amendments were made to the Electoral Laws with which the Commission would function at an administrative level so that it would be collected six months before the elections.

Regarding the systemic laws that are part of the reform package, the latest information is that there is an agreement on the laws on the courts and the Judicial Council, which have already been put in the first reading on the agenda of the plenary session that begins today. One of the remarkable changes in these laws is that in the future, the Minister of Justice and the President of the Supreme Court will not have the right to vote as members of the Judicial Council. However, these regulations are still in the first phase of the adoption and additional amendments and amendments are possible, for which a public hearing has already been scheduled – on April 10, at the Parliamentary Committee on the Political System. The Defense and Security Commission, on the 5th of this month, is to debate the Laws on Interception of Communications and the establishment of a new operational and technical agency, which also arises from the reform package.
Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Bujar Osmani yesterday, through a video address on Facebook, appealed to all political factors in the country to build a consensus on the laws from the plan 3-6-9 before the European Commission to publish the progress report on the country.

In the next ten days, we will build a consensus and adopt the laws that point to a state consensus, and thus put a point on the country’s Euro-Atlantic future. I am convinced that this is the desire of our citizens, our voters, regardless of which party they come from. With that, it becomes our obligation,” says Osmani.
The Deputy Prime Minister stresses that he expects a clear recommendation from the EC report, in order to start negotiations with the EU, and that the report represents a finalization of the plan 3-6 to 9, thus completing its implementation.

Zaev’s Cabinet on a confidence test in parliament

VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, in an interview with RFE, announces that the opposition, after deciding to return to parliament, will file a request for a vote of confidence in the cabinet of Zoran Zaev.
“If VMRO-DPMNE returns to Parliament, it will return to the big door. If it decides to return, the first moment the party will do is to file an interpellation about the work of the Government, where the MPs of VMRO-DPMNE will explain all those abuses and mistakes that this ruling majority in the past ten months has inflicted on our homeland, and we will see how the ruling majority will respond to those requests,” says Mickoski.
A vote of confidence of the Government can be set by at least 20 MPs, and for a possible vote of no confidence in the Cabinet of the Cabinet, a minimum of 61 MPs’ votes are required. In the event that a vote of no confidence is passed to the government, she is obliged to resign, otherwise in the next 90 days, a question of confidence cannot be raised again in the Ilindenska office.
After Mickoski’s announcement of an interpellation, SDSM appealed to the leader of VMRO-DPMNE to apologize to the citizens for the damage that VMRO-DPMNE had inflicted on the 11th year, as it is assessed, criminal and deceptive rule.
“VMRO-DPMNE politicized and abused the institutions for 11 years, criminal and wasteful spending of the citizens’ money, isolating the state and dividing the society. Mickoski should apologize for such a rule of his party, to explain his role in the violence of April 27 and to stop hiding behind the people. The people, the citizens, defeated the policies of divisions, destruction and blockades and chose policies that create a society for all citizens,” reacted by SDSM.
In the reaction of the ruling party, it is in the interest of the citizens and the state, Mickoski and VMRO-DPMNE to overcome the devastating policies of divisions and blockades and to support the reform process that moves Macedonia forward.

Aleksandra M. Mitevska