Macedonia Opposition MPs to Return for No-Confidence Vote

Macedonia's main opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party is to end its boycott of parliament next Tuesday for a vote of no-confidence in the Social Democrat-led government of Zoran Zaev.

The motion is unlikely to pass as the opposition lacks the minimum of 61 MPs needed in the 120-seat parliament to bring down the government.

But VMRO DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickovski said that Zaev's government, which has had ten months in power, had lost all credibility.

"Its defeats have become commonplace and bare populism is its trademark. In reality, the people live much worse [than before]," Mickovski said.

"This criminal government will be remembered as the most incompetent since Macedonia's independence," he added.

VMRO DPMNE MPs stopped attending parliament in November after police arrested six of their MPs who were suspected of playing roles in the April 27 2017 mob attack on parliament.

Five MPs are now among 30 people facing terrorism charges for what the prosecution claims was an organized attempt to destabilize the country.

The return of the opposition MPs comes at an important time, when parliament has only about ten days to pass several key EU-sought reforms that need opposition MPs' votes.

Macedonia hopes the European Commission will restore its frozen invitation to start EU accession talks after its latest progress report is published on April 17.
 
Before then, however, parliament needs to pass a set of prepared bills, mostly on EU-sought reforms in the judiciary, and which need a two-thirds majority to pass.

Only the votes of the opposition MPs can provide that.

For the past two years, the EU has frozen its invitation for Macedonia to start membership talks due to an...