English
Members of Parliament voted today to remove Ilire Dauti as head of the Commission for welfare policies, demography and youth. The Alliance of Albanians representative was criticized for delaying a vote on the proposed law for welfare rights for veterans who fought, among other, in the 2001 war.
Albanian parties tried to prevent the adoption of this law, while the Macedonian parties are in favor. A total of 61 votes were gathered to remove Dauti, and 22 were opposed. The proposal for her removal was made by Levica and VMRO-DPMNE provided the bulk of the votes.
The President of the Commission did not convene a session for us to discuss the law on veterans, which is in violation of the laws and the rules of Parliament. Members of Parliament were denied the right to speak and intervene in the law and the right to participate in the work of this commission, said Sasko Jancev from Levica, who is one of the MPs who initiated Dauti’s removal.
In her defense, Dauti insisted that she is being removed from her position only because she is Albanian. Following the line of her coalition partners in DUI, Dauti tried to heighten the rhetoric along ethnic lines, alleging that the Government is threatening all Albanians.
A number of other votes for removal of government ministers are scheduled. The remaining proposals come from DUI, but even their former coalition partner SDSM is not supporting the proposals, and they have slim chances of being accepted. DUI wants to remove Izet Mexhiti, Ivan Stoilkovic and Pance Toskovski as government ministers and Astrit Iseni as Toskovski’s deputy in the Interior Ministry.
SDSM members left the Parliament after announcing that they will not support the four motions initiated by DUI or the one against Dauti. Oliver Spasovski from SDSM said that the proposals risk increasing ethnic tensions and that SDSM does not want to get involved in that.
