VMRO-DPMNE against any amendments or elections

VMRO-DPMNE held meetings until five o’clock yesterday morning after the referendum on the name. The initial satisfaction from the low voter turnout was soon suppressed by the question – What now? It is clear that the ball is now in the parliamentary court, where the government requires at least nine MPs from the “For United Macedonia” coalition for the required two-thirds majority and for constitutional amendments. Although the public has been speculating for months, even on the names of the “treacherous” MPs, VMRO-DPMNE claims that the situation has changed dramatically, and even those who were sure that they would vote “for” are now hesitating, and even promise that they would not raise their hands.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev says that in a few days it will be known whether there is a possibility of reaching an agreement with the opposition. Talks should begin today. If there is no agreement, there will be early parliamentary elections that would take place in November in order to respect the deadlines for the implementation of the agreement with Greece.

“Of course there is a capacity for elections. The law and the Constitution provide for the next steps. But I hope that we will manage to reach an agreement. Processes cannot be frozen and stand still, things must move forward,” the prime minister said.

If agreement is not reached and there is need for early elections, according to him, the election will take place quickly. There is a possibility that the election will be organized by the end of November, a timetable that he mentioned on Sunday night. He mentioned that throughout the process, the other deadlines must also be considered, especially in the elections for the European Parliament, which will be held in May next year. He said yesterday that, for the time being, there was no support from specific MPs of VMRO-DPMNE on constitutional amendments, and that in the following few days through talks with the opposition, it will be known whether there was mood for reaching a deal. Zaev stressed that in the current situation all should show political maturity since no one offers an alternative to NATO and the EU, nor a better agreement than the one that has been achieved with Greece.

VMRO-DPMNE is fairly reserved regarding the issue of elections. According to their internal surveys, they were in the lead in terms of SDSM and they would allegedly have won whenever there was an election, especially after the “fiasco” with the referendum, but the internal party quarrels are still ongoing, which would be in their interest if the election did not happen right away.

“Let’s make a distinction, Sunday’s vote was not a vote for a political party, but for Macedonia. We have preserved our country, but nothing is over, because this government is ready to do anything. However, the results of the referendum are a sufficiently strong indicator of what the people think of Zaev, and also woken our MPs up that have been marked in the public as positive that they will vote on constitutional amendments. If there were at least a turnout of 800,000, it would have been easier for them to say that they must respect the will of the people. This way, even those you consider as certain swear that they will not vote,” said the party leadership.
Two weeks ago, half of the VMRO-DPMNE MPs said they would not support constitutional amendments. The other half stayed silent, and some of them voted on Sunday. The party publicly said that it left everyone to act according to their own belief, but agitated for a boycott on field. Among those who voted was also the coordinator of the parliamentary group, Dragan Danev. According to our information, he has been “disenfranchised” for a long time, but still, at least officially, he has not been removed from office. Daniela Rangelova, who heads the Union of Women, also voted in the election. Also. Among those who voted was former Health Minister Nikola Todorov, Vice President Mitko Jancev etc. It was notable that the night when Mickoski addressed the party from the party headquarters almost none of the current MPs was present.

When it comes to the mayor of Kavadarci, the party denies that he wanted to overthrow Mickoski. They say that business and politics did not go hand-in-hand, so they may have made a mistake involving him in the highest party bodies. However, the owner of Kozuvcanka is one of the biggest sponsors in the party and that is a fact that must be taken into account.

On the other hand, besides the leader Mickoski, former President Nikola Gruevski boycotted the referendum vote. There were various speculations about him, even a speculation that he would vote at 13:00 at the school in Kisela Voda, near his place of residence and where he usually votes. He never said whether he was going to vote, and because of the issues he had with the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office, there were speculations that he might “work” during the referendum. Saso Mijalkov, the former head of the Security and Counterintelligence Administration, did not vote either.

Goran Adamovski