Members of Parliament from the ruling majority intend to continue working through the weekend in order to strip former Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski of his immunity and send him to prison. He is the latest victim of the political purges going on in Macedonia, aimed against opposition officials.

Eight members of Parliament from VMRO-DPMNE and allied opposition parties had their immunity removed in what the party calls unprecedented abuse of the judiciary and the prosecutors to destroy the opposition. Veljanoski was charged along with two former Government ministers – Mile Janakieski and Spiro Ristovski, who had no immunity and were detained on Wednesday, only to be attacked by a group of imprisoned Albanian terrorists on Thursday.

Veljanoski, Janakieski, Ristovski and former Prime Minister and VMRO leader Nikola Gruevski are charged in the broad court case which the ruling SDSM party is pushing over the April 2017 incident in the Parliament, when SDSM and DUI forced Veljanoski out of the Speaker’s chair and installed former Albanian guerrilla commander Talat Xhaferi. The case was used to ensnare a number of VMRO activists and members of Parliament, three of whom were blackmailed with it and threatened with lengthy prison sentences until they agreed to vote in favor of remaining Macedonia into North Macedonia. It seems likely that the ruling coalition will have the votes to remove immunity from yet another member of Parliament and send Veljanoski to prison.