Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi did not allow the start of the vote of no confidence process against Government ministers Ljupco Nikolovski and Bojan Maricic. The procedure was initiated by VMRO-DPMNE after Macedonia’s dismal ranking in the latest Transparency International report and over the numerous corruption scandals of the Zaev regime – the two are tasked with fighting corruption and ensuring the rule of law.

But Xhaferi did all he could in Parliament today to prevent this process. Party leaders Hristijan Mickoski and Zoran Zaev recently reached an agreement under which VMRO will help provide quorum to SDSM in the Parliament, for bills of national importance, but the debate on the requested votes of no confidence was also supposed to begin.

The public needs to be informed that the Parliament is held hostage by Zoran Zaev and Talat Xhaferi, and their incompetence to manage the institutions at the height of the biggest global healthcare and economic crisis. Their goal is to silence the opposition and to keep the Parliament as a tool of their coalition. The citizens face growing corruption every day and see the lack of reforms of the judiciary, and this is also noted by relevant international institutions. But the Speaker prevent this discussion from being put on the agenda, said VMRO-DPMNE representative Nikola Micevski during a heated exchange with Xhaferi.

On the issues Xhaferi allowed to advance, the Parliament approved the renewal of the state of crisis on the borders with Greece and Serbia – a move needed to keep military units there to prevent migrant crossings, and the small military presence in the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon. The Parliament also approved a law that is part of the broader stimulus effort in light of the economic crisis, and the naming of the members of the National Council for European Integration.

Xhaferi also plans to advance changes to the healthcare law that will ban the transfer of employees of public healthcare institutions into the private sector for the duration of the pandemic.