Former Deputy Prime Minister and powerplayer in the DUI party Musa Xhaferi made a cryptic statement, that the “old boy is counting his last days”. The comment is seen as an open challenge to party leader Ali Ahmeti, who led the 2001 Albanian insurgency that killed hundreds in Macedonia and then created the DUI party from the NLA insurgency movement to capture power in the country for two decades.

Xhaferi supports a large faction that tries to assert itself in DUI. They are not openly challenging Ahmeti, but want to remove his heir apparent – First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi. Thousands of supporters of this faction, that calls itself the Fire Faction, gathered in Skopje’s Cair district yesterday, in open rebellion against their party.

Their train is leaving the station. The boy, or the old boy, is counting his last days. Tick tock and so on, Xhaferi said. He wouldn’t specify if he means that Ahmeti or Grubi are on their way out.

The leaders of the Fire Faction, which include several top DUI officials in Skopje, accused Grubi of interfering with their rally after electricity went down several times during the gathering. Grubi denied the allegation.

This Government came to power by fraud. If the people of Cair knew that Artan Grubi would be First Deputy Prime Minister, DUI would never have gotten the 15 seats in Parliament. It would have lost the elections, said Izet Mexhiti, former Cair mayor and head of the Fire Faction.

Grubi is a former football hooligan leader, and nationalist activist from Cair, whose political career took off after he was hired by the Dutch Embassy. He has apparently lost support in Skopje, but relies on Ahmeti’s clout to keep his position. This division cost DUI at least two seats in Parliament, and possiby more, depending on how the anger is managed.