Ilire Dauti blocked the Assembly demanding an answer from Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski
Ilire Dauti did not budge from the lectern until the prime minister answered her; Afrim Gashi suspended the session, ministers were visibly smiling.
Member of Parliament Ilire Dauti of the Alliance for the Albanians (AA) on principle refused to leave the Assembly lectern at today’s session for parliamentary questions until Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski answered a question she had posed several weeks ago. The incident occurred in the presence of the entire Government and ended with two suspensions of the session by Speaker Afrim Gashi.
Tension over the unanswered question
At the start of the session Dauti reacted several times and warned that the Government and the prime minister are “playing dangerously” with the instrument of parliamentary questions and with accountability to the citizens. In her previous appearance, she said, she asked for the prime minister’s position “on fair representation, regarding the new law on fair representation that the Government prepared in exchange for the Balancer.”
During today’s debate Dauti addressed the prime minister directly several times, but Mickoski remained silent. Speaker Gashi acknowledged that the MP was “completely right,” but noted that it might be a technical issue — namely that there was no reaction from the prime minister.
When the MP and, as was noted in the chamber, leader of SDSM Venko Filipche asked questions and received answers from Mickoski, Dauti again went to the lectern, but parliamentary services cut her microphone. Gashi then told her: “If this procedural reaction of yours is again about the same thing, it will be your last one today.”
The MP responded with a sharp speech and remained at the lectern: “Thank you, Afrim Gashi, I hope you will not continue to read in Arabic. I demand that the prime minister give a verbal answer. He is ignoring the question; the citizens did not elect us to be servants but to act with integrity. I will not move from this lectern today until I receive an answer to the question I asked last time. Either you come out here and give an answer, or this session will not continue today.”
Colleagues from the Alliance joined the protest: Rijad Shaqiri requested a procedural speech but stayed by the lectern, and leader Zijadin Sela stood beside Dauti. MPs in the chamber watched with concern, and some of the ministers present at the session — including Culture Minister Sedat Sulejmani and Finance Minister Gordana Dimitrioska-Kochoska — were seen smiling.
Gashi first approved a half-hour break “to calm the MP.” After the break a series of procedural interventions followed; SDSM MP Fatmir Bitiqi accused the authorities of deliberately avoiding answers and offered the sternest remark: “Find three minutes, answer MP Dauti. If the Rules of Procedure state that if an oral answer is not possible the prime minister or a minister can reply in writing but within 20 days of the question being posed, then it cannot be 30 or 40 days. The Rules of Procedure say 20 days! But here I recognize a deliberate strategy by the authorities to evade being subjected to parliamentary questions.”
After the new procedural interventions subsided, Dauti again requested a procedural reaction and Speaker Gashi suspended the session for the second time, this time until 2:00 p.m.
Photo: SDK.MK)
