VMRO-DPMNE: Procedural blockades must not become an excuse for early elections

A senior VMRO-DPMNE official says the procedural blockades led by DUI deputies will not by themselves force Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to call early parliamentary elections. The party warns that conceding to such filibusters would create a repeatable mechanism for snap elections.

VMRO-DPMNE's source stresses that the current obstruction is concentrated on bills that require a Badinter majority and that procedure under the Assembly rulebook does not legitimise halting parliamentary work through routine procedural objections.

Two paths forward, party official says

"If endless procedural objections block Parliament's work and lead us to early parliamentary elections, the next parliamentary composition, regardless of which party is in power or opposition, the dissatisfied party will again be able to misuse procedural objections to come to new elections. Whoever allows procedural blockades of Parliament to be an argument for early elections will open Pandora's box for further and further elections," the VMRO-DPMNE official warned.

The official outlined two possible exits if DUI and other Albanian opposition parties continue to block Badinter-majority laws: either the governing majority accepts that those laws will remain stalled, or Assembly Speaker Afrim Gashi must preside more firmly and not allow endless procedural interruptions.

So far, the blockades have prevented committee and plenary debate on several measures, including the Law on Fair Representation and a package of higher education laws. The obstruction has been carried out through procedural objections and filibustering tactics for roughly two months, and parties warned they may resume or expand their tactics after the summer recess in September.

SDSM leader Venko Filipche publicly accused the ruling coalition of a pact between Mickoski and DUI leader Ali Ahmeti intended to provoke early elections. "As an alibi for calling elections, there exists an agreement between the Organized criminal group VMRO and DUI, and that is with procedural interventions from DUI's parliamentary group to block Parliament's work, and that to lead to early elections," Filipche said, citing information he received without specifying its source.

After Mickoski said he would call snap elections if provoked by the opposition, Ahmeti immediately sought a leaders' meeting to agree an election date and requested dissolution of the Assembly. Neither SDSM nor Vredi accepted Mickoski's invitation, and several MPs from the Albanian opposition have staged sit-ins and refused to leave the rostrum — at one point MP Dauti said he would not move from the podium until Mickoski replied, blocking the session for parliamentary questions.

Photo: Sloboden pechat / Dragan Mitreski