The implications of the latest events on the political stage, the incident in Parliament, the opposition boycott as well as the preparations for the spring report of The European Commission on Macedonia were the talking points on the agenda of Stefano Sannino, Director General for Enlargement of the EU. During his 2-day stay in Macedonia, he met Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Teuta Arifi, Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki, the leaders of all political parties and the president of the Journalists’ Association of Macedonia. He only avoided meeting reporters.  According to unconfirmed information, Sannino analyzed at his meetings how firmly everybody held their positions and whether there was any room for dialogue.

Although it is clear what Sannino talked about at his meetings, Peter Stano, Spokesman for the European Commission, explained Tuesday that Sannino’s visit was just a regular, technical call.

The State Election Commission is getting ready for elections regardless of who and how participates in the local elections in March. At the highest election body in the country, meetings were held Monday to define the activities related to the 24 March vote. Representatives of both the government and the opposition took part in the work of State Election Commission.

According to announcements, Boris Kondarko as representative of SDSM is going to remain in the State Election Commission as its president although his party is about to take the final decision to boycott the local elections. The opposition has not yet decided whether to nominate representatives to the election bodies, as stipulated by the law.

- Stefano Saninno, director of the European Commission's Directorate General for Enlargement, on Tuesday is to pay a visit to Macedonia in order to agree on the details for the new EU report. Saninno is to examine the developments in Macedonia in detail and except with the top leadership, he will also meet with the leaders of BDI and SDSM and representatives of the Macedonian Association of Journalists. Nevertheless, European Commission Stefan Fule shall pay a visit to Macedonia in mid-February.

Nikola Gruevski, Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader, refused to accept the conditions that opposition leader Branko Crvenkovski set in exchange of stopping the boycott of Parliament and running in the local elections. Ruling VMRO-DPMNE made it clear that they have no intention of holding early parliamentary elections together with the local and appealed to the opposition to return to Parliament and through dialogue in institutions seek solutions to the problems and challenges.

SDSM replied instantaneously that they were going to boycott the local elections unless they were held together with early parliamentary elections and that they had no intention of returning to Parliament.

It has thus become certain that bringing the positions of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM closer together is hardly likely.  

Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski called Friday the local elections for 24 March. The decision for calling elections will be provided to the State Election Commission, the authority responsible to organize the poll. Speaker Veljanoski appealed in his brief statement to all participants in the election process to act solely in agreement with the provisions of the Constitution and laws, which, in his view, will ensure continuity in obtaining most positive assessments of this highly important process.

Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski is going to call the local elections Friday and set the date for holding the poll on 24 March, while the leadership of governing VMRO-DPMNE is going to voice Saturday its stance to the conditions that SDSM has recently set to run in the local elections. If the reply of the governing party is negative, as it is speculated, it is almost certain that the opposition of the Macedonian political campus is going to boycott the local elections.

If, on the other hand, the opposition proposal – holding local elections simultaneously with early parliamentary elections – is accepted, Parliament will have to dissolve sometime around 24 January, which is in about two weeks’ time.

Under the election law, local elections should be held in the fourth year of the terms of office of the sitting local authorities, in the second half of March.

- UN Mediator Matthew Nimetz is to pay a visit to Skopje on Thursday and at the meetings with the state leadership, it is expected for him to share his impressions from the visit to Athens where he stated that he is optimistic that a name solution can be found. Nimetz said that he presented several ideas in Athens but he dislikes the word “proposal” because it is a matter of great number of ideas that he presented to both parties.

SDSM demands a technical government with independent persons standing at the head of the ministry of interior and the ministry of finance, as crucial ministries for holding fair elections. They intend to reveal their other demands in detail Wednesday following the meeting of their central committee Tuesday. VMRO-DPMNE refuses to accept or comment on any conditions, demanding of SDSM to terminate their boycott, return to Parliament and run in the local elections. In the meantime, the opposition and the government have no communication.

After Macedonia changed the strategy in its attitude toward its southern neighbor six months ago, reducing the negative rhetoric and offering measures for closer cooperation and communication, Greece is starting to do the same, Dnevnik reports.

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, who kept accusing Macedonia of counterfeiting history and irredentism, has voiced calmer tones before mediator Matthew Nimetz’s announced visit to the region this week.

“We see Nimetz’s visit as a positive development because conditions can be created for progress in the name issue resolution. It is a result of our initiative for signing a memorandum between the two countries, outlining the framework for a solution,” Minister Avramopoulos said.

Boycotting elections – a good or a bad idea? This dilemma is nothing new yet it has become a burning issue recently considering the opposition is, at least for now, determined not to run in the local elections in March unless modifications are made to the election law in agreement with the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations and the monitoring is enhanced. Aleksandar Petreski, mayor of Ohrid from SDSM, said Thursday that if the opposition decides not to run in the elections, elections will not be held at all.

“How is it possible for VMRO-DPMNE to organize and run in the elections alone? It is impossible,” Petreski said.

The boycott of the local elections is not going to be a precedent in the political life of Macedonia. As the Macedonian public knows, VMRO-DPMNE boycotted the second round of the parliamentary elections in 1994.

Via vice president Gordan Georgiev, opposition SDSM said Wednesday that they would definitely boycott the local elections in March. The modifications they called for in a number of segments as a condition for them to run in the elections applied until Monday (December 24) when the incident in and out of Parliament occurred and no longer apply, Georgiev said.

“Any regulations and any voters’ lists become irrelevant in the context of what happened on December 24. This government is unable to hold fair elections and therefore we are not going to run,” Georgiev explained.

This decision is both surprising and expected, experts say, considering SDSM set a few demands, which the opposition itself knew to be unreal and which the government accepted nevertheless. Aware of the election defeat they are sure to suffer in March, it is logical for them to shun an agreement with the government and consider the boycott of elections as the best solution, experts say.

-    With many wishes for a prosperous year and in euphoric atmosphere, Skopje’s residents welcomed the New Year on square Macedonia. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his wife attended the celebration on the square.

- Several thousands of people, members and followers of the opposition parties held a peaceful protest gathering on Saturday outside VMRO-DPMNE’s headquarters in Skopje. People chanted “Go away,” “It’s enough,” and posters that read “Resistance” were seen, but there were no incidents.

- Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki before the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee presented the priorities of the Macedonian foreign policy for 2013. Poposki announced active politics with Greece and Bulgaria in order to normalize the good-neighborly relations. He invited Greek counterpart Dimitris Avramopoulos to come to Macedonia to discuss the name issue while Macedonian MPs demand an invitation to be sent to Bulgaria’s state leadership and open talks with Macedonia to be launched. Due to the boycott of opposition MPs, Poposki said that their conduct causes damage to the country’s Euro-Atlantic integration.

PDSH is the only opposition party that has remained in Parliament after Rufi Osmani’s RDK confirmed Wednesday that it would boycott the work of the legislative body. Following in the footsteps of the Macedonian opposition bloc led by SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski, the two MPs of RDK are not going to participate in the Parliament’s work either in protest against the violence that occurred at the budget meeting Monday, Dnevnik reports.

Menduh Thaci’s MPs will be the only opposition representatives to “bombard” with the questions Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and the ministers at the meeting dedicated to MPs’ queries Thursday.

A high-ranking PDSH official told Dnevnik Wednesday that they had no intention of joining the Macedonian opposition bloc in boycotting Parliament considering they were an autonomous party conducting its own policies. They are not concerned by Rufi Osmani’s decision to walk out of Parliament either.

A larger group of reporters that waited for the start of the parliamentary session dedicated to MPs’ queries Thursday, booed Speaker Trajko Veljanoski and the MPs of the governing parties in Parliament and left the parliamentary gallery in protest.
For more than 15 minutes, they waited at the gallery for Speaker Veljanoski, who not typically for him, was late. Reporters from almost all printed and electronic media were at the gallery. This was their second time in two years expressing protest against the government. Two years ago, in protest against another parliamentary incident, they left the room where the government was holding a press conference.

Macedonia is going to begin next year with a budget of 2.7 billion euros and a budget deficit of 3.5 percent of GDP, or nearly 290 million euros. The budget which was voted through Monday instantaneously and without a debate has 3 million euros less relative to the version that the government proposed. The way the new budget is projected and adopted, the government intends to generate next year revenues of 2.41 billion euros, 2.041 billion euros of which will be from taxes and contributions.

The government main trump card that should help the economy is the capital investments, which will be by 10.4 percent higher next year. Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski believes that the main objective of the budget in 2013 should be boosting the economic growth and protecting the most vulnerable category of citizens.

The budget allocates 13.3 million euros for rail infrastructure and little less than 4 million euros for gasification, as farming subsidies in 2013 are going to total 135 million euros.

Rufi Osmani’s RDK appealed to the international community to intervene to prevent anarchy in the country and form a technical government to organize early local and parliamentary elections.

President Ivanov issued a press release in regard to the events in and out of Parliament Monday which says:

“I have watched the events in and out of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia Monday with great concern. I regret the unsightly scenes and I truly hope that what we saw yesterday will never happen again.
What I have warned of in my annual address happened yesterday. My appeals obviously fell on deaf ears. I will say it again: The whole society must not be held hostage to irresponsible conduct. When it comes to the citizens’ interests and the state’s unobstructed functioning, there is no room for partial interests.
In democracy, there may be political friends and political opponents but political actors must never look at one another as foes. People expect solutions, not problems. However, solutions have to be sought out in the institutions of the state by those elected to do so. It is unacceptable that in the third decade of our independence we must witness violence against and in democratic institutions and the constitutional order.
I particularly regret the upsetting images with the representatives of the media. Everyone in this country is obliged to honor the order, the Constitution and the laws and no one should be hindered in performing their professional responsibilities, whether they are representatives of the media, Members of Parliament or members of the services.
I have said it but will say it again. If someone thinks they can divide people and set them against each other with misuse and manipulation, they obviously have no idea what wise and temperate people they are dealing with.”

It is more than clear that the crisis in Macedonia is worsening but what happened over the past few days is its escalation which shows that the institutions are weak and that there is lack of political culture. According to analysts, the entire run of events goes in the direction of local elections and depending on the PM’s will, it also goes in the direction of early parliamentary elections. Professor Biljana Vankovska assesses that what we have been looking at has been going on for a longer period of time, but unfortunately the political battle has now turned into a physical battle.
“The blame rests in the government’s obstinacy but also in the opposition’s tactic to increase its rating. I am afraid that the battle in which demonstrators and wounded are counted is a Pyrrhic victory. The Government is forced to act in accordance to the legal procedure, in lack of a working atmosphere in the Parliament and adopt a temporary budget or to dissolve itself. The Government did not want to organize “fronts,” and the opposition could hardly wait to go in an offensive once it could not win the elections,” Vankovska said.

With 65 votes in favor and four against, ruling VMRO-DPMNE and BDI passed the budget 2013 after the Parliament’s security service pushed the opposition MPs out of the hall and removed all reporters and cameramen from the gallery. The very tense atmosphere between two groups of protesters outside Parliament and between the MPs and the security inside Parliament produced a series of incidents and left a few MPs and citizens injured. According to VMRO-DPMNE, a coup d’etat was prevented Monday. Leader of the opposition party SDSM Branko Crvenkovski , on the other hand, said that as long as he breathed he would not step off the political stage. The opposition intends to block Parliament’s work. Also, Crvenkovski appealed for civil disobedience.

- In the absence of the opposition MPs, the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia passed the budget 2013 with 65 votes in favor and four against.

Several groups of citizens protesting due to the budget issue have gathered in front of the Macedonian Parliament on Monday. The police have created a buffer zone between the groups in order to prevent incidents. The protests follow a month-long debate in the Parliament over the 2013 Budget. The Government reviewed and adopted late Sunday the supplemented 2013 draft-budget.

-    The Government adopted the supplemented draft-budget for 2013 at a session held Sunday and submitted it to the Parliament in order for it to be adopted. The press-release from the government session reads that the draft-budget has been adopted in accordance with the law and procedures after the Parliament submitted the reports of the committees to the Government.

Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski accepted Thursday over 44 amendments to the draft budget 2013 submitted by the opposition in the amount of some 3 million euros. However, SDSM refuted for the third time Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski’s proposal for finding a solution so the budget could be adopted by 31 December.

“With the aim of passing the budget and considering the work of the committee on finances and budget and the legislative committee have been blocked, I gave my approval to 44 amendments today, 33 of which have been submitted by SDSM, six by MP Izet Beqiri and five by PDSH,” he said.

 

- Skopje University 'Ss Cyril and Methodius' presented Thursday the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu with a doctor honoris causa degree in international relations. Davutoglu extended gratitude for the great honor and stressed that Macedonia is his second home. In his view, the Balkan and Macedonia have been nourishing many ties and genuine friendships.

There is no agreement between VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM on unblocking the budget 2013 adoption even after the second coordination meeting at Speaker Trajko Veljanoski’s office Wednesday. A new attempt at bridging differences has been set for Thursday morning despite the fact that neither party is willing to make a concession. The government, represented by Speaker Veljanoski, and the opposition, through SDSM coordinator Igor Ivanovski, each put forward their own proposals for solving the problem at the coordination meeting Wednesday.

Speaker Veljanoski proposed that the Government, through Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski, should answer in writing in two days whether and what of the 1,200 submitted amendments of the opposition are acceptable. The accepted amendments would then be incorporated in the government draft budget to be provided to Parliament on Saturday and discussed at the plenary session Monday. SDSM resolutely refused the proposal.

I am disappointed with the outcome of this year’s Brussels summit and I regret that the European Union failed to send out a true message, which someone obviously do not understand how important is to us and the region, said Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov Tuesday in his annual address in Parliament. He stressed that the old trite Balkan manners, Balkan interests, aspirations and divisions, still survive and impact the outcomes of the EU summits.

“Delaying the process of enlargement for the Republic of Macedonia and the region does not help accomplish the commitments of the founding fathers of united Europe. My message to those who influenced these conclusions is that they are wrong and I thank those who did not share their view and who were a majority. Despite everything, we remain loyal and committed to our Euro-Atlantic orientation and integration. Our policy was and will be European,” President Ivanov said.

President Ivanov added that the Judgment of the International Court of Justice changed the perception of our country in the context of the resolution of the name issue with Greece.

Through blackmails and an ultimatum, the opposition is pushing for a scenario of a crisis in the country, putting at stake all citizens and trying to block all parliamentary committees, the government said Monday after the opposition led by SDSM refused Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski’s proposal for unblocking the adoption of the budget 2013. SDSM threatened that unless their proposal of making budget savings of 204 million euros was accepted by Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Stavreski and the Government, they would still insist on their 1,100 amendments to the budget draft and block the budget debate at the legislative committee as they did over the weekend.

“This is not a constructive opposition. On the contrary, it is a destructive opposition. In no country in the world, the opposition blocks the budget adoption by filing thousands of amendments and in no country in the world it is the opposition that creates the budget. Accepting the ultimatum and blackmail in such a way would stand for destroying democracy and the country’s political system, which is unacceptable to us,” Stavreski said.