Following the near riot in one of Skopje’s north-eastern districts yesterday evening, local Mayor Boris Georgievski said that he went to the Cento area to calm down the protesters. He glossed over the fact that the protesters were activists of his own SDSM party, and that they were released from detention after violating the coronavirus curfew.
Dozens of ethnic Albanians from Cento were protesting in violation of the curfew after three men, including apparently an SDSM party municipal official, were detained for being outside during the curfew. Video footage showed angry men cursing at Georgievski while he was assuring them that he will get the three detained men released.
I went there on my own will, to calm the situation down and return it to normal, as is my duty, and to help avoid additional incidents, Georgievski said.
He denied media reports that the three men were hit by the police during the arrest. He described their arrest as a “informative conversation” conducted by the police, that does not equal arrest and helps explain away their release. Meanwhile, dozens of people are arrested each day in Skopje and in other cities for being caught outside during the curfew hours without a permit.
This is the first significant incident during the otherwise orderly conduct of the newly introduced epidemic regulations. After the incident, many have called out the ruling SDSM party if the law applies to its members, and especially to its ethnic Albanian faction. It comes days after the head of the Islamic Community in Macedonia threatened to call on his followers to disobey the coronavirus regulations unless he is paid, and said that he will “turn Macedonia into Bangladesh”. The Government promptly paid the Islamic faculty a sum of nearly 50.000 EUR.
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