Skopje: Initiative to remove the vote of confidence from the Speaker of the Parliament, Afrim Gashi

2024-09-03 20:25:18, Kosova & Bota CNA

Skopje: Initiative to remove the vote of confidence from the Speaker of the

The Parliament of North Macedonia opened today the debate on the interpellation against the Speaker of the Parliament, Mr. Afrim Gashi, at the request of the Macedonian party 'E Majta', which accuses him of violating the work regulations of the assembly and of inciting several scandals. Albanian parties see the initiative for interpellation (motion of no confidence) as motivated on ethnic grounds. Most lawmakers do not support this initiative.

The initiative of the Macedonian nationalist party 'E Majta' to remove the vote of confidence from the Speaker of the Parliament, Afrim Gashi, does not seem to result in the removal of the head of the legislative institution, because there are not enough votes for this. The ruling parties and the opposition European Front coalition do not support the interpellation.

The "Left" party accuses Mr. Gashi of violating the rules of the parliament and of a series of scandals, according to it. Dimitar Apasiev of the 'E Majta' party says that the speaker of the parliament does not respect the Macedonian language and flag; that he violated the secular principle of the state by organizing a religious prayer in the parliament; that he intervened against the laws in the case of the control at the Skopje airport of the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani and misused official and police services with his participation in a wedding in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, the speaker of the parliament sees the initiative for the motion against him as an attempt to deepen divisions in society, for giving up the country's path towards the European Union and NATO membership. Mr. Gashi accused the 'E Majta' party of, as he said, "Albanophobic and Islamophobic" attitudes.

"We all speak loudly about the EU; citizens talk about coexistence. We all say that we are here together in good and bad, while only this party (E Majta) speaks against the three fundamental pillars of our society: our Euro-Atlantic orientation, our commitment to good neighborly relations and our commitment to harmony interethnic. It's very bad when you play the nationalism card of someone else's judgment without listening to all the facts and arguments ," said Mr. Gashi.

The Social Democratic League of the opposition supports the interpellation against Mr. Gashi, accusing him of the incident at the Skopje airport and the trip in an official car to a wedding in Kosovo, in which case the entire convoy of krushkas had crossed the Macedonia-Kosovo border without subjected to the control of personal documents at the border point of Bllaca.

The European Front led by the Democratic Union for Integration is against interpellation.

"Due to the fact that... we find and are of the opinion that the motive for this interpellation has nothing to do with the work of the speaker of the parliament, but it has to do with his ethnicity" , said Talat Xhaferi, deputy of DUI.

However, Mr. Xhaferi emphasized that the European Front has reservations about the work of the speaker of the parliament due to the continuous non-respect, according to him, of the procedures established by the regulation of the work of the parliament.

The prime minister and the chairman of the VMRO-DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickovski, has called it "immature and cracked behavior" of the Social Democratic League, DUI and the Left, adding that there is no basis for questioning the speaker of the parliament, Afrim Gashi.

The 'Left' party has six deputies in the parliament and together with the 18 deputies of the Social Democratic League, it does not reach the required number of 61 legislators to depose the speaker of the Parliament./ VOA