Opposition in Macedonia left without 12 deputies, strengthens bloc for agreement with Greece

Initially, eight deputies who supported constitutional changes, but disappointed with this decision, as well as with the party's approach to the process with the Agreement with Greece, four others have left, the Radio Free Europe report reported.

Of that, VMRO has accused the ruling parties that “with threats and low blackmail have received support for the preliminary agreement”. But disfellowshipped deputies and fugitives have denounced various threats, which, according to them, have come from various structures. Some of them are already being guarded by the police, while the court procedure confirmed by Justice Minister Renata Dskoska has begun.

The “those who wrote necrology and pasted LSDM doors now threaten VMRO-DPMNE deputies, who voted for constitutional changes. These are not individuals but a well - organized group. We've heard of the threats to VMRO's disfellowshipped deputy leader. These threats should not only be prosecuted by institutions but also be debated in opinion, as they create a bad atmosphere”, Deskoska has declared, while investigators' bodies have ordered VMRO's wealth freeze, respectively, of 69 objects that will not be sold or rented, due to allegations of financial abuse.

For developments in VMRO, some of its former members accuse the party leader, Hristian Mickovski that state interests have placed them on party ones, while demanding that an extraordinary congress be held.

It is clear that now neither party nor state cares, but how to save its skin. Now the two groups do not choose methods to just rob the party and have it as a cover, or to take advantage of it again. Until there is an urgent congress to clean up with all the harmful elements, the party every day and more the damage will be huge, both for the party and for the state”, says Jove Kekenovski, former senior leader of VMRO's.

He stresses that the situation that has been created is reflected largely even in the Assembly, as the subx0> unconscious deputies have now crossed to the other side, which will be easier to pass on constitutional changes in the second and third phase. With that, according to Kekenovski, due to internal clashes, VMRO is serviceing power to implement the Agreement with Greece, which it praises as “capitulation” for the country.

Commenting on developments in VMRO- The DPMNE, Alijadin Demiri, the connoisseur of political issues, says important developments are taking place in this party between the two currents on the future of Macedonians -- one that defends former President Nikola Gruevski's theory of the ancient origin of Macedonians and the other group that, according to him, has understood this Greuvski fraud and is trying to return to reality.

This is not just about dividing or breaking up a group of MPs. But the problem is more substantial, than what kind of Macedonian they are and what programme they want. Apparently the most confused man here is Hristian Mickovski (the leader of VMRO-DPMNE), who is strongly protecting the vulnerable Nikola Gruevski with his antiquity and crime, and others who have taken the courage to criticise and give up Gruevski's theories and navigate towards a new policy or concept. This will be painful and it's a process that will last. All this will create a huge trauma in the VMRO-DPMNE ranks”, Demiri says.

The VMRO-DPMNE has governed Macedonia in the last ten years, with Nikola Gruevski at the top, who is now being tried in some court processes for misusing official office. Processes are being developed against other senior personalities of this party, which strongly oppose the Agreement with Greece on resolving a 27-year dispute with the state name. / REL/