Macedonia Opposition Tries to Paralyse Parliament

Many of the new government's proposed bills, regulations and appointments may fall victim to the strategy adopted by the former ruling VMRO DPMNE, whose MPs have formed ten separate parliamentary caucuses which gave them more opportunities to stall parliament's work.

The proposed dismissal of the chief Public Prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski has already been delayed due to this filibustering as various VMRO DPMNE caucuses have since Monday been staging procedural interventions to make long speeches and asking for recesses.

The VMRO DPMNE, which controls 59 MPs in the 120-seat parliament, insisted that Zvrlevski's dismissal should happen only after legal changes are made so that it, as the opposition, is able to propose his successor.

The Social Democrats, SDSM-led led majority believes that the real goal behind the formation of the ten caucuses is to paralyse parliament's work, however.

"For every hour of recess that you ask for, I will prolong the [parliament] session for one hour after 6pm [parliament's usual closing time]," parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi warned the opposition MPs.

The main ruling SDSM has also announced the possibility of changing parliament's rulebook in order to prevent the filibustering. For that they need a simple majority of more than 60 MPs, which they have.

The VMRO DPMNE on Tuesday was not available for comment on its recent strategy in parliament.

The proposed budget rebalance, which should reach parliament this week, may face similar filibustering, as well as the expected appointment of new chief public prosecutor and many other appointments that are expected by the new SDSM-led government.

Equally importantly, many other laws and provisions that form part of the...