The coalition of the Alliance of Albanians and the Alternative party condemned Speaker Talat Xhaferi for refusing to hold a session of Parliament even after the opposition offered to provide the quorum.

VMRO-DPMNE and the opposition Albanian coalition offered to help Xhaferi get to 61 votes needed to hold a session of Parliament, which the ruling SDSM – DUI – BESA majority often fails to find, because of its very narrow margin – it only has 62 votes in the Parliament. This has blocked the adoption of key legislation such as the proposed fifth stimulus package meant to help the economy handle the coronavirus crisis.

But Xhaferi refused, called the offer “blackmail”, and insisted that he will wait for some of the majority members of Parliament who are currently sick with Covid to recover and return to work. Xhaferi wanted to add other bills to the agenda, which the opposition refused, and insisted that only vitally important laws, such as the stimulus package and the border management bills are put to discussion.

The ruling “majority” refuses offer of help from the opposition and delays the adoption of the stimulus package

The issue with the Albanian opposition parties is deeper – they are also threatening to filibuster any bill until their proposal for a new citizenship law is put to a vote. The Alliance of Albanians and Alternative are proposing a law that would drastically reduce requirements for citizenship, even allowing foreigners to claim citizenship simply by producing witnesses who will state that they lived in Macedonia for a period of years. Albanians across the region often have dual or even triple and quadruple citizenships – between Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia, and the law would likely make this even more widespread. VMRO-DPMNE blocked this proposal by submitting numerous amendments to it, and in response, the coalition of AA and Alternative said that it will block any bill on the agenda.

We are in touch with people from the business community who say that they fully support our approach. Even though they are in a difficult situation financially they say that it is even more important that all people obtain citizenships, said Skender Rexhepi from the AA – Alternative coalition.