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Southeast Europe
March 23, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
show which party is serious about governing Kosovo for the benefit of its citizens, and which are only interested in scoring political points.
At end February, European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker said that Kosovo’s parliament should ratify the border demarcation deal with Montenegro as soon as possible so that Kosovans would be able to travel to the EU without needing visas.
Macedonia’s opposition VMRO-DPMNE plans major protests to force snap election
Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje
Macedonia’s biggest opposition party, VMRO- DPMNE, is gearing up to launch major protests in May with the aim of forcing an early general election and overthrowing the government led by Social Democrat Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
The shocking announcement came after the par- liament adopted the controversial language law that makes Albanian the second official language in the country.
VMRO-DPMNE strongly opposes the law, which was adopted for the second time on March 14. The party was also angered when the parliament failed to discuss amendments filed by the op- position, saying the procedure was far from be- ing regular. President Gjorge Ivanov immediately refused to sign the bill into law, after previously vetoing the law when it was adopted for the first time in January.
“Protests will last until we overthrow this anti- national government in early parliamentary elections. We call on all citizens to join us,” VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said in an interview with broadcaster Alfa on March 16. Mickoski was elected the party’s new leader a few months ago to replace Nikola Gruevski, who served as prime minister from 2006 until 2016.
Mickoski said that the party is undergoing a pro- cess of transformation to defeat the government
led by Zaev,”whose catastrophic policies in all areas are pushing the country toward a disaster.”
He reiterated that the language law was unconsti- tutional and was adopted by breaching all proce- dures in the parliament, and announced an inter- pellation against parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi.
On March 18, VMRO-DPMNE issued a statement saying that Mickoski and other party members will continue their meetings with citizens across the country with the aim of getting support to overthrow the government.
“We are preparing the best programme ever, with a team of domestic and foreign experts. Many new people are joining us on a daily basis. We are working to offer citizens an alternative,” Mickoski said in a statement.
“I will also continue with field visits. I will go from house to house in cities and villages, and will talk to the people. The voice of the people must be heard, we will discuss and offer solutions,” Mickoski said.
Protests begin
Meanwhile, on March 18, hundreds of Macedoni- ans gathered in front of the government building in protest against the adoption of the language law. The protest was organised by the All-Mac- edonian National Congress – Makedonium. Pro-