Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski convened an urgent session for Tuesday, as an attempt to return the opposition MPs to the seats.

“Considering that the opposition’s vice president and the coordinators of the opposition parties did not attend the coordination meeting, I decided to convene an urgent session for Tuesday focused on the media situation and the events related to case Pero Nakov BB and A1 TV. I do not want and I will not allow the Parliament to be hostage of the interests of certain political parties,” said speaker Veljanovski. Opposition parties SDSM, NSDP, NA, LP and DR, despite the Speaker’s call, are not expected to attend this session.

In Veljanovski’s appeal, they see a purposely hiding of Gruevski for his supposed fight against crime.

“SDSM’s MP group has no intentions of participating at the parliamentary sessions which represent a cheap attempt to fake democracy and hide the crude reality. SDSM publically presented the reasons why it decided to boycott. As long as these reasons are enforced, we will stay outside the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia,” SDSM said.

The liberal democrats doubt that Veljanoski candidly wants to solve the problem. They urged SDSM to return to the Parliament and to fight against the government inside the institutions as it harms the country with such actions.

“LDP is convinced that the solution to these problems should be looked for inside the country’s institutions. In fact, this was also confirmed by the European Commission which said that the place where problems should be solved is in the Parliament,” LDP MP Andrej Zernovski said.

BDI assessed that the opposition’s boycott harms the Euro-Atlantic integration.

“The problems should be solved within the institutions, within the Parliament,” said MP Tahir Hani.

So far, 32 MPs are to boycott the Parliament.           

German member of the European Parliament Elmar Brok advised the opposition to fight within the Parliament, not out of it. He cautioned that “the opposition in Macedonia shouldn't apply the same methods used by members of the socialist party in Albania”.

"If democracy fails to function well, then you have problems," Brok tells MIA, commenting the decision reached by Macedonian parliamentary opposition parties to quit the Parliament.

"If the opposition chooses not to work in the Parliament, but in the streets, it doesn't mean that the system is stable, especially that of opposition parties like Social Democrats in Macedonia, who harm the interests of Macedonia into EU with their actions," Brok said.

Nevertheless, the European Commission is cautiously monitoring the situation in Macedonia. For Brussels, the events with the opposition’s boycott of the Parliament and A1 TV did not help the integration of one candidate-country. The Commission demands the political dialogue to be led in the Parliament and all political parties to work together in meeting the criteria.

”The European Commission considers that the political debate should take place in the institutions that are designated for that purpose – meaning national parliaments. We call on all politicians of ruling, opposition parties to work together and resume the dialogue, thus ensuring an appropriate functioning of the Parliament,” said spokesperson for EU Enlargement Commissioner Natasha Butler.

The Commission will continue to follow the situation and developments in Macedonia and confirm that they have not contacted the Government. It announced that it will inform in time if it decides to undertake certain measures. Kristian Hedberg, head of Unit in charge of Macedonia in European Commission Enlargement Directorate, is to arrive Wednesday to Macedonia to closely get acquainted with the events and directly get the Union’s standpoint across.