Speaker Talat Xhaferi rejected Justice Minister Renata Deskoska’s request that the Parliament meets to discuss the proposed law on the Special Prosecutor’s Office, if the necessary two thirds majority is agreed.

The Parliament of the “Republic of North Macedonia” operates under its rules and not under a diktat, let alone individual aspirations of anybody, even if it is a Government Minister, Xhaferi replied to Deskoska.

He announced that the Parliament will not meet during the campaign preceding the April 21st / May 5th presidential elections. Deskoska, on the other hand, wants a session to be held if Zaev’s Government reaches the necessary majority before May.

I do not know what the views of President Xhaferi are, but I can say that what comes from the Government is if agreement is reached and we agree on the Law on Public Prosecutor’s Office, it should be made into law and be put on a parliament session, because it is a condition for obtaining a recommendation from the European Commission, Deskoska said.

The European Union Embassy in Macedonia publicly supported the law and urged the parties to adopt it, dangling the prospect of opening EU accession talks this July. But the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, which has been decimated by politically motivated arrests and persecution in which SPO played a central role, demands that a series of international standards are introduced into the future work of the state prosecutors. The party proposed 65 amendments to the text and one of its key requests is that the public prosecutor is appointed by the opposition, in light of the constant abuse of the service by the Government to attack its political opponents.

Serious differences remain in the interpretation of the content of the draft law, but we agreed that there is will to continue with further consultations, so we can maybe achieve a mutually acceptable solution, said Antonio Milososki, who represents VMRO-DPMNE in the talks with Deskoska.

If VMRO’s amendments are rejected by the Government and no agreement is made, Zoran Zaev indicated that he may try to reach the two thirds majority the same way he secured it to rename Macedonia – by bribes and blackmail of opposition members of Parliament. Some of the nine opposition representatives who voted to rename Macedonia were blackmailed precisely by criminal charges initiated by the Special Prosecutor.