The impression of DUI membership is that Grubi is a clan, and Ahmeti is his protector, says the vice-president of DUI and a member of Parliament, Izet Mexhiti, in an interview with Radio Free Europe.

Regarding the relations within the party and what is the source of their discontent, he emphasizes the lack of debate and accountability in DUI.

Mexhiti is one of the most exposed members of the group that demand changes in the party and the replacement of ministers in the government from the ranks of DUI, first of all, the first vice prime minister, Artan Grubi, which he openly emphasized in the interview.

For him, but also for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bujar Osmani, he says that they were the “last soldiers” of the former Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski.

In principle, we must say, and in some cases mention some names. The first is Artan Grubi. The government composition of the DUI, with some exceptions, neither went out to collect votes in 2020, nor did they pass to take a mandate from the people, also this government composition was not passed at a central assembly in the Democratic Union for Integration, so they do not have a mandate from the citizens, they do not have a mandate from the party. We have been silent these two years for the sake of Ali Ahmeti, our president… The problem is that in these two years, instead of (Artan Grubi) being the guardian of the orientation policies of DUI and the program of DUI, we come to the conclusion that the program with which we won these elections has been forgotten, and I have the feeling that the Framework Agreement has been forgotten or that it has been traded off for multiculturalism or for civil society. It is strange that from being very close to the former government of Gruevski, now it turns out that he is very close to the concept of this Government, and he forgets what is the constitution for the Democratic Union for Integration, which is the Framework Agreement, says the MP.

Regarding the relations within the party and what is the source of their discontent, he emphasizes the lack of debate and accountability in DUI.

For three years there were no party bodies, we barely managed to convince ourselves to form those bodies. The new presidency is being formed, there were two meetings where we debated these topics, and when the third was to be held to reach conclusions regarding the report of the DUI government composition, the work done, the program, and everything we discussed, they told us that there will be no presidency, which means no party bodies, no debate, no analysis, no report. These are the European values of every European party, and to pretend to contribute to the Republic of Macedonia being part of the European Union, and to have no party bodies and no debate in the party is contradictory. Our goal is to straighten up before the people straighten up, says Mexhiti.

Regarding the position of the leader Ali Ahmeti, the vice president of DUI says that he is inviolable and that there are no doubts, adding that if someone wants to portray the whole situation as a political war between their group and Ahmeti, they will not succeed.

He is the leader, the president of the party and with all these steps we want to return him to be the president of everyone in the party. He should be the president of the party, not take sides. In this case, the impression of the membership is that Grubi functions as a clan, and Ahmet is the protector of that clan. I think he should return to the original position of president of the Democratic Union for Integration, inviolable to all, as he functioned in the past, and when there were divisions in thinking he was the one who finally sat them down, never took sides. In case he takes a side, it doesn’t look like the president or the father in the party, and I don’t want to see Ali Ahmeti that way under any circumstances, emphasizes Mexhiti.

When asked why the group is against the expansion of the government coalition with the Alliance for the Albanians, Mexhiti says that the argument that more MPs are needed for constitutional amendments does not hold, because even with the Alliance the required two-thirds majority is not reached. Secondly, he says, the tendency for the Alliance to enter the Government is to silence the “fiery”, as well as members of other parties “for narrow political interests, but in no case for a strategic agenda”.

Regarding the relations with VMRO-DPMNE, and whether he expects some of their MPs to vote for the constitutional amendments, Mexhiti gave a short answer:

First, let’s sort things out internally, then we can convince others. In these circumstances, how will we convince them? he said.