Macedonia: Opposition Launches Anti-Government Rallies

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By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

Social Democrats are launching a series of anti-government rallies from June onwards, to boost party morale ahead of the local elections due in early 2013.

The opposition protests, aimed against the centre-right government of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who has been in power since 2006, will begin in the southeastern town of Strumica on June 3.

They will end with a mas rally in the capital, Skopje, on September 2.

The Social Democrats accuse Gruevski of presiding over economic decline and of delaying the country’s NATO and EU integration. They say that Gruevski’s policies have also worsened relations between Macedonians and the large ethnic Albanian minority.

“As the biggest opposition force we have a duty to confront this irresponsible behaviour… and articulate the growing discontent among people,” party leader Branko Crvenkovski said in Skopje.

The opposition says it will use the rallies to promote its policies and its candidates in the next local elections due in spring 2013.

If they win these elections, Crvenkovski does not rule out demanding early general elections.

So far the party has lost all elections held since 2006, including two early general elections, and presidential and local elections in 2009.

The last time the party called for early elections was at the beginning of 2011. Prime Minister Gruevski accepted the challenge and won the June 5 polls, securing another four-year term in office.

The Social Democrats doubled their number of seats in parliament, but did not win enough to form a government.

Meanwhile, one recent opinion poll shows that the difference between Gruevki’s VMRO DPMNE party and the opposition is narrowing.

A survey carried out earlier this month by Rating agency showed that the popularity of the ruling party had fallen from 23.5 per cent in January to 22.1 per cent in May. The opposition remained steady on about 18 per cent.

The survey itself concluded that “people are discontented with the situation in the country but for now are not seeing any political alternative [to Gruevski]”.

Some observers also feel the latest figures do not point to a significant trend. “If we compare the latest opinion poll with the previous ones, all the fluctuations in the party’s ratings are within an accepted margin of error,” Vladimir Bozinovski, from the Institute for Political Studies told the Utrinski Vesnik daily.

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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: Opposition Launches Anti-Government Rallies

  • May 19, 2012 at 2:06 pm
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    Only a complete fool would want change in government in Macedonia. The opposition is like a cancerous tissue that needs to be neutralized or removed. They offer nothing but corruption, nepotism, trouble e misery. The present government is the best ever that brought some stability, prosperity and hope for its citizens. I hope that Macedonian citizens are smart enough not to fall prey to the same old worn-out tactics from the opposition. These are the same people who worked against Macedonia’s interests in Brussels and supported Greek claims against Macedonia.

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  • May 20, 2012 at 1:29 am
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    The leader of the opposition Crvenkovski is a treator.He deserves the same fate as Alexander the Great done to Philotas.
    This cummie,all he thinks is for himself,not the well being of the Republic of Macedonia and its people.
    He represents Athens interests in his own country.He was bought by Greece,the only problem for him today is,Samaras is broke,and Macedonia has the best Prime Minister since independance in Gruevski.

    Reply

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