Levica walks out of Skopje City Council meeting, accuses Orce Gjorgjievski and VMRO‑DPMNE of staging proceedings

Levica's council group walked out of a meeting of the Council of the City of Skopje today in protest against a newly introduced format for handling councillors' questions, the party said.

Levica says the new procedure removes the possibility of immediate follow‑up and confrontations with the mayor

According to the party, the new model forces councillors to submit all their questions at the start of the session and to receive answers later, removing the chance for immediate debate and additional questions to the mayor, the directors of public enterprises and institutions, and the city administration.

In a statement Levica noted: "The Levica council group today was the only opposition party that left the session of the Council of the City of Skopje as a protest against the new method of holding sessions for councillor questions," and said the format narrows the democratic oversight of the city authority and reduces the role of councillors in demanding accountability for how Skopje's funds and resources are managed.

The party accused VMRO‑DPMNE councillors and Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski of imposing the new way of conducting the session without taking the collective will of the Council into account. "The Council of the City of Skopje is not an extension of the mayor's arm, nor are councillors extras in a pre‑staged performance in which the authorities choose the rules according to their own political needs," the statement said.

Levica also criticised SDSM for remaining in the meeting. "SDSM, as apologists for the undemocratic actions of VMRO‑DPMNE, remained in the session, thereby directly supporting this breach of the Rules of Procedure," the party said.

The statement argued the new format makes it possible for questions to pile up and for answers to be reduced to pre‑prepared replies, eliminating the possibility of follow‑up questions and immediate confrontation between the city authorities and the problems raised by citizens.

Summing up their decision, Levica warned it would not take part in what it described as a simulation of democracy: "Levica will not participate in a simulation of democracy in which the Council is meant only to formally pose questions, while the VMRO‑run city authorities choose when, how and whether to answer at all. The Rules of Procedure should not be broken so that Orce Gjorgjievski and VMRO‑DPMNE can control and stage every debate in the Council." The party said leaving the session was a protest against the alleged breach of the Rules of Procedure, the degradation of councillors' role and the restriction of democratic oversight.

Photo: Printskrin