VMRO will stand aside, but will still exclude members who vote “in favour”


VMRO-DPMNE remains on its stance and will not participate in the work of the Parliament where the final phase of the constitutional changes for ratification of the name agreement with Greece begins today. The party expects its lawmakers to be united this time and not to vote in favour of the Prespa Agreement, but, just in case, they are announcing that if there are any “traitors” – they will be immediately excluded from the party. They claim that the government continues to press and blackmail their members in order to provide a two-thirds majority.

“The MPs follow the congressional resolution and the party programme, they practically follow the decisions of the executive and the central committee, so we have to believe in their honesty,” VMRO-DPMNE said.

The plenary session is scheduled for today, and the law envisages for the debate to last a maximum of ten days. However, given that the opposition will not participate, it is possible for the voting to occur on Friday. This, however, will mostly depend on the government’s assessment of at least 80 votes in favour. It was the same when the first vote on October 19 took place, when the session scheduled for the morning began later that evening. Then, eight lawmakers from the opposition gave support to open the Constitution for revision.
“Our information is that those who voted the first time will vote again this time around, and according to Prime Minister Zaev, that a two-thirds majority has not been secured, we consider it an alibi in relation to the concessions that he provided in the past few months. Our lawmakers complain that in the past days they received personal calls and were offered different things in exchange for a vote in favour of constitutional changes. In this context, we consider the reluctance of the Prosecution to file charges against the party in the Thaler case. They want to secure a vast majority and therefore do so. We are not changing our stance, the agreement with Greece is harmful, and the people clearly said what they think of it in the referendum vote. With blackmail, pressures and amnesties they managed to secure majority, and now they should finish the process themselves. If one of our lawmakers joins the voting – will be excluded from the party,” the opposition said.

In October, the seven MPs of VMRO-DPMNE and one of the Socialist Party, who now act as independent, were excluded. Although there were speculations that their votes are uncertain due to the detention of Saso Mijalkov, these speculations are expected to be canceled with his release from the Sutka prison facility provided by the Amnesty Law, as well as the changes in the Criminal Code for smaller sentences for the so-called ‘bombs’. Besides them, Mijalkov and former Minister Nikola Todorov were expelled from VMRO-DPMNE, who, according to the opposition, helped Zaev make a turn in the Parliament.

“I will do my best to secure a two-thirds majority and we will inform the public at the time of the vote. We will either share the content with what has been achieved or will bear the responsibility of the whole focus we gave on the integration,” said Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Once the agreement is ratified by the Macedonian side, the process moves to Greece, where it will also need to secure a majority in parliament. In case of a positive epilogue in Skopje and Athens, it is up to NATO members to accept the Macedonia as a new member.

Goran Adamovski