Once again, it's election meddling!
According to reports, thousands of protesters in Macedonia have taken it to the street against what they called in European Union’s meddling in another country’s election in Europe. Thousand protested outside EU delegation embassy in Macedonia after it was announced that Talat Xaferi has been elected as the speaker of its parliament.
In the last Macedonian election that was held in December 2016, the ruling VMRO-DPMNE Party lost its majority but still became the biggest party with 51 seats. SDSM led by Zoran Zev became the second biggest in 120 member parliament with 49 seats. Third biggest was Ali Ahmeti’s BDI that secured 10 seats. Three other parties received that remaining 10 seats. Three additional seats are reserved for overseas stayers.
Although VPRO-DPMNE attempted to form a coalition with BDI, coalition talks broke down in late January 2017. SDSM pursued informal coalition talks with BDI. Mr. Zaev was able to form a majority coalition in the Macedonian parliament but has been unable to take power because president Gjorge Ivanov has vetoed it taking government. The president, who is from the same party as the ousted former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, claimed that the inclusion of MPs from an ethnic Albanian party makes the coalition a threat to the country’s sovereignty.
Under this scenario, European Union’s foreign minister Federica Mogherini visited Macedonia and offered her support to Mr. Zaev and promised that she would immediately begin EU accession talks if he can make his way to power. In recent weeks, a coalition of social democratic, ethnic Albanian parties agreed on a power-sharing deal - including the election of Talat Xhaferi, an ethnic Albanian. The opposition-led coalition had the strong backing of diplomats in Brussels. Ms. Mogherini met with Tahat Xaferi to show her support.
Why are we talking of Macedonia?
Meddling in Macedonia’s election is yet another example of how the European Union is poking Russia. The outgoing government in Macedonia which won a majority of the seats but fell short of an outright majority had the backing of Russia. The situation is similar in many ways that of Ukraine.
Source: EconoTimes