Macedonia: Tensions Rise As Protests Continue

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By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Protests held by supporters of the former ruling party – VMRO DPMNE – against a possible new coalition government in Macedonia are set to continue, amid fears rallies will become increasingly violent.

Supporters of Macedonia’s former ruling party, VMRO DPMNE, took to the streets for a second day on Tuesday to protest against a possible new coalition government following the December 11 general election.

Demonstrators claim the potential coalition between the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, SDSM, and ethnic Albanian parties will endanger ethnic Macedonian interests.

The protests – organised by the newly-formed Civic Initiative for a United Macedonia – began on Monday in the capital.

Thousands attended Tuesday’s rally in Skopje and there were also protests in several other Macedonian towns including Bitola, Prilep, Kicevo, Kumanovo and Stip.

The Skopje rally was marred by violence as two journalists from the A1on news outlet – cameraman Vladimir Zelceski and journalist Aleksandar Todevski – were physically attacked while reporting on the protests.

“Participants at the protest attacked the reporters from behind, throwing punches towards their heads and kicking them. They have taken their camera, thrown it to the ground and started kicking it, managing to completely destroy it,” A1on editor-in-chief Predrag Petrovic said.

“Medical emergency [workers] were called right away and at the moment the two reporters are at the urgent medical centre where they are being examined.”

Photo-journalists at the scene managed to take pictures of the alleged attackers leaving the spot, and of the two reporters lying on the ground.

Violence fears

The protest organisers have pledged to continue demonstrations on Wednesday afternoon, despite fears rallies – which have been increasingly nationalist in tone – could be marred by further violence.

The rally in Skopje, attended among others by prominent members and supporters of the conservative VMRO DPMNE party, as well as by heads of various state enterprises, began in front of the government building.

Protesters waving flags and placards reading ‘Freedom or Death’ – the credo of the historic Ottoman-era Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, VMRO – then marched to the front of the VMRO DPMNE party headquarters in central Skopje where they called on the party leadership, as well as other parties, to join them.

“The time for [the] defence of a unitary and united Macedonia is now. Let’s defend Macedonia, the way our ancestors left it to us,” the prominent actor Vanco Petrusevski told the crowd.

VMRO DPMNE has been in power since 2006 but could now find itself on the opposition benches after the SDSM leader, Zoran Zaev, announced he had secured the support of a majority in parliament. He is waiting for the president to award him with the mandate to form a new government after submitting proof of his parliamentary majority on Monday.

However, the demonstrators accuse Zaev of betraying Macedonian interests by striking a deal on a number of ethnic Albanian demands – such as passing a new language law extending recognition of Albanian as an official language throughout the country – in return for support to form a new coalition government.

Plea to stop ‘nationalist chanting’

Tuesday’s Skopje rally ended outside the Macedonian Parliament, where one of the organisers, Boris Damovski, appealed to the crowd to stop using “chauvinist and nationalist chants” during the rally.

He said that at Monday’s first rally in Skopje there were some nationalistic chants but that “they were few”.

Meanwhile, as Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is expected to hand over the mandate to Zaev on Wednesday and ethnic tension in the country is mounting, the US State Department issued a press release on Tuesday calling on “Macedonia’s leaders to form a new government without further delay”.

Insisting only a new government could end Macedonia’s deep political crisis, the US urged “all parties to put the interests of Macedonia and its citizens above all else”.

Macedonia has not yet formed a new government despite holding the general election more than two months ago. The vote ended in a near-tie between VMRO DPMNE and the SDSM.

The continuing political crisis in Macedonia revolves around opposition claims that VMRO DPMNE president and former PM Nikola Gruevski ordered the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people, including his own ministers.

The SDSM started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes in early 2015 that they claim contain incriminating evidence about many senior officials.

Gruevski denied the charge and insisted the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilise the country.

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

2 thoughts on “Macedonia: Tensions Rise As Protests Continue

  • March 3, 2017 at 2:16 pm
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    The author of this piece is misleading and one sided.Mr Marusic fails to acknowledge that the opposition leader Zaev accepted a platform devised in a foreign country Albania.This platform is a way of destruction and partition of the sovereign nation and creating a greater Albania.This platform calls for changes to the constitution,anthem to include former Albanian fighters against the Macedonian people,changes to the use of the language change of the national flag,changes to Army uniforms,and Bank notes to have their pictures on,removing borders between Albania and Kosovo for easier annihilation of the country by the Albanians and making a greater Albania.The greater Albania was started by the US president B.Clinton.B.Clinton should be brought to justice for attacking an independent nation Serbia and illegally partition it.The leader of the communist party that has become a criminal organization were the actors of illegal wiretapping of government entities.Zaevs pedler of these illegal wiretappings was none other than Z.Verusevski,Zaevs co-conspirator to overthrow the legitimate government of N. Gruevski.In the wiretapping the American ambassador was involved as he and Garrett in the terrorist attack in Kumanovo where Macedonia lost 8 police officers and capturing over 35 of the terrorists.It is well known that 2 Americans and two British were killed in that battle.The SPO was formed by the Ambassadors to cover the tracks of the illegal American and British involvement.This prosecutor does not functions independently as J.Baily is the puppeteer.It is worth mentioning that J.Baily is under investigation in the USA for the interference in Macedonia’s internal affair’s.

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  • March 19, 2017 at 12:34 pm
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    They blame everyone but themselves. Its Greece’s fault. It’s the Albanians fault. Its Soros’s fault. Its Hillary’s fault, Its the Bulgarians fault. It’s the Serbs fault. Its Zaevs fault, It’s a conspiracy theory.
    When will this nation wake up to itself. They are Slavs and as such need to celebrate their Slavic culture. They cannot use the name Macedonia. It’s not theirs to use. They were till 1991 Yugoslavia. Any name that Yugoslavia gave the region was harmless because it was encompassed within a sovereign country. The name they have now is harmful. Its offensive to the Greeks. Its offensive to the Albanians. Its offensive to history. Its offensive to Bulgaria. Its offensive to academia. Its offensive to its population. They have set themselves up for a civil war. The Albanians need very little provocation for war. The pseudo Macedonians with their nationalistic rhetoric which has been instilled into them by Gruevski over the last 11 years will use any excuse for a fight with their neighbors.
    They need an about face as a nation. They need to resolve the name issue with Greece. They need to embrace a multi ethnic stance in relation to the Turks and Albanians within their country. They need to eradicate the false ideology that permeates their state run media. They need to turn to their qualified academics who have been silenced, victimized and ostracized for formulating an internal cultural platform that befits their ethnicity. The false antiquization program of Gruevski needs to be dismantled and this means renaming, re branding and re educating. Its almost like Hitler’s Germany in there at the moment. de antiquate. re educate. embrace. If they follow this plan all will be fine. If they don’t they will definitely end up in a bloody civil war. I fear the worst.

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