LOCAL PRESS 

Brnabic: OSCE support in almost all important reform processes (RTS) 

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic assessed today, in a conversation with the newly elected Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia, Ambassador Jan Braathu, that cooperation with this international organization, since its establishment in Serbia, is an example of good partnership and great support in almost all important reform processes in the country. Congratulating Ambassador Braathu on his new position, Brnabic thanked the representatives of the OSCE Mission to Serbia for constructive cooperation and support in strengthening institutions and the civil sector, the rule of law, strengthening human and minority rights, and encouraging dialogue at the national and regional levels. Brnabic pointed out that she especially appreciates the role of the OSCE in the field of the media and its participation in the process of adopting the Media Strategy and in the Working Group dealing with the safety of journalists. The Head of the OSCE Mission said that this area is high on the agenda of the Mission’s work and the key to cooperation with institutions, but also with civil society in Serbia. Brnabic informed the OSCE representative that preparations are underway for the adoption of a national strategy for preventing and combating violence against women in the family and partner relations 2020-2025, as well as the preparation of a draft law on gender equality. Braathu used the opportunity to congratulate Serbia on the exceptional results and successful implementation of immunization of its citizens, and he described the donations of vaccines to neighboring Northern Macedonia and Montenegro as an act of friendship and good cooperation in the region. She pointed out that she expects that the vaccination process will soon give results, and that the preparation for the production of vaccines in Serbia is important, not only for our citizens, but also for the entire region. The current situation requires greater cooperation in the region, Brnabic said and explained that the protection of citizens and the recovery of the Serbian economy is not possible without strong cooperation with its neighbors and mutual regional support.

Vucic: Good relations between Serbia and North Macedonia of greatest significance for entire region (Tanjug/RTV) 

Good relations between Serbia and North Macedonia are of the greatest significance for the entire region, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at a meeting with North Macedonian Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani on Thursday, highlighting the Mini Schengen as an example of successful cooperation to the benefit of citizens and aimed at economic development of the countries actively participating in the initiative. Vucic also noted the significance of a memorandum signed by Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania enabling mutual assistance and cooperation between the countries’ health care systems aimed at treating COVID-19 patients, the presidential press office said in a statement. Vucic and Osmani discussed the strengthening of good-neighborly relations and resolution of all issues through dialogue, as well as improvement of economic cooperation and mutual assistance on the European path. Vucic named concrete projects that would contribute to better connectivity and economic cooperation between the two countries, such as modernization of a rail line to Skopje and strengthening of the border crossing infrastructure. Osmani expressed gratitude for a Serbian donation of anti-COVID vaccines handed by Vucic to North Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Sunday. Osmani said the vaccines, which enabled the start of vaccination of North Macedonian citizens, had inspired new hope.

Petkovic: Pristina to ask itself what is it celebrating (Tanjug/RTV) 

The Head of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic stated on Wednesday that the Albanians in our southern province are marking today the anniversary of the failed attempt at secession, and not the anniversary of statehood. As he says, self-proclaimed Kosovo is still a political and international legal provisional, about the status of which the international community has diametrically opposed views, with the majority of humanity not perceiving that creation as a state. In a statement for Tanjug, Petkovic reminded that after June 1999, more than 250,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians were expelled from Kosovo and Metohija, and that out of 437 places in Kosovo and Metohija south of the Ibar where Serbs lived, 312 settlements were ethnically completely cleansed. “So that today there are almost no Serbs in Pristina, Pec, Prizren, or in many other cities where they lived,” said Petkovic. As he pointed out, about 150 Serbian churches and monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija were damaged or completely destroyed in the extremist attacks. Courts in Pristina received 18,396 lawsuits for monetary compensation for the destroyed and damaged property of Serbs and other non-Albanians, but the courts mostly rejected the lawsuits or did not act on them, and about 70,000 requests were submitted for the return of usurped Serbian property south of the Ibar. “All this is the legacy of the Albanian separatist project in Kosovo and Metohija, and when some politicians from Pristina are lecturing today about dealing with the past, here is their past and the facts they have to face on their own,” said Petkovic. He added that 678 Serbian companies were illegally sold in Kosovo and Metohija, and about 80,000 workers were expelled from those companies and left without jobs. “Those who are celebrating in Pristina today should ask themselves what they are celebrating, because there are currently about 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo and Metohija, which is less than a third of the pre-war number. The return process is below two percent and it is the smallest in the whole world, much smaller than in Rwanda, for example,” said Petkovic. According to him, more than 80 ethnically motivated attacks and incidents were recorded last year alone, and many were not even reported because there is no trust in the will to sanction the perpetrators, and there are various types of intimidation, unfounded arrests of Serbs, verdicts without evidence, seizure of property. “There is no territory in Europe where such things happen, and to make matters worse, many countries, which see themselves as the cradle of democracy, are often indifferent to what is happening to the Serb people on the ground, because self-declared Kosovo, even this one, was born on crime and violation of human rights of our people, is their political child,” notes Petkovic. “When some politicians in Pristina today, such as Albin Kurti, act moral greatness, I must tell them that Serbia and the Serb people will never accept the irrevocability of the current situation on the ground, nor agree to the view that everything that happened or still happens today to our people is in any way justified and legitimate,” said Petkovic. According to him, in such circumstances, when it does not have full control over a part of its territory, Serbia tries to do everything possible to facilitate the survival of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and only the Office for Kosovo and Metohija invested 2.6 billion Dinars from 2014 to 2020 for the construction and capital reconstruction of 2,764 housing units for internally displaced persons, young married couples and the socially endangered. Last year alone, 132 apartments were constructed and 223 residential buildings were reconstructed, 275 doctors and other medical workers were given jobs, funds were allocated for the construction of a new modern hospital in Gracanica worth six million Euros, and dozens of young people got a job through the “My First Salary” project, Petkovic added. “We will continue to help our people in Kosovo and Metohija, and to fight for our state and national interests, because that is the moral obligation of both Serbia and the entire Serb people. We will do our best to make the truth about what is really happening in Kosovo and Metohija see the light of day and break the information blockades that still exist in many countries that hypocritically and without any basis speak of self-declared Kosovo as an oasis of democracy and human rights,” concluded Petkovic.

Five countries ready to withdraw recognition of Kosovo if Pristina violates Washington agreement (Novosti) 

Serbia has firm guarantees from five countries that they are ready to withdraw the decision to recognize Kosovo as independent, Novosti reports, citing sources in the Serbian government.

If Pristina violates an agreement according to which it should refrain from applying for membership in international organizations, Belgrade will ask those countries to activate the process of revoking their recognitions, the newspaper reports. With the Washington document from September 2020, Belgrade and Pristina agreed to a one-year moratorium on the campaign for the withdrawal of recognitions, and on applying for admission to international organizations.

REGIONAL PRESS 

Dodik: There is no force in world that will abolish the RS; Schmidt replacing Inzko is another international bluff (RTRS/Sputnik)

In an interview for Sputnik, Chairman of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Presidency and leader of SNSD Milorad Dodik said that those in Sarajevo who think that after arrival of the new administration in Washington the US President Joseph Biden will “park in B&H” for six months and bring his people to fix the situation are wrong. In his opinion, this will not happen. According to Dodik, there is no force that will abolish Republika Srpska (RS). Dodik reminded that the last century was full of big killings of the Serb people and full of challenges and that in the upcoming decades, Serbs will define their status the best and that is merging with Serbia and not some imaginary story about B&H. He underlined that they should not stay without a clear ethnic line and that is a national gathering, protection of the Serb identity, religion and the RS and the right to decide on their status on their own as all peoples in the world, i.e. the right to self-determination. Dodik said: “The biggest military and the financial operation did not manage to destroy the RS and make Bosnia because it is simply unfit for that and it has no capacity to be a state that they want. B&H cannot be a unitary and centralized state. The RS separating in territorial and political sense of the word will happen before B&H becomes what those who allegedly call Biden want. You know, when you listen to that story it turns out that Biden will come to B&H, park himself and stay here for at least six months, bring all of his marines, intellectuals, bankers and everyone else and fix the situation in duration of six months. Of course, this is not going to happen but there is a show going on.” Dodik reiterated that B&H cannot function and that there is no force in the world that can make B&H a unitary state. Dodik also said: “We, Serbs here, believe that we are entitled to our status and we are building our status very clearly. We believe that the RS is a state by all elements of the international law. The RS has no chair in the UN but we are living the state: we have territory, population, effective power…” According to Dodik, the US official policy is the Dayton Agreement although they ruined it in a suspicious and slightly dirty way, blaming those who defended the original Dayton. In his opinion, the US will continue what they were doing by now, i.e. a wide story on adjusting the Dayton, changing it beyond the Constitution. Dodik argued that the US will try to offer alleged reforms – through a platform called the EU – that basically refers to organization of the state itself and if they refuse it, they would say that they are against the European integration.

Asked whether he expects that German candidate for the position of a new High Representative (HR) in B&H Christian Schmidt will replace HR Valentin Inzko despite of opposing stance of Russia, Dodik stated that the story on the new HR begun with speculations that Russia and Germany agreed and now, we see that this was a prank. In his opinion, this is another international bluff. According to Dodik, a significant number of European countries is not observing this as a good move, adding that at least five Ambassadors of EU countries told him that this is unclear and unprepared. “We here tie our lives and our future to the entire Serb people. We belong to the Serb people. We are no, as I often said, Bosnian Serbs where some want to push us into an imagination about B&H. We have here a completely absurd situation in which Bosniaks, who want to take revenge on Serbs, persistently want to live with us. They are not explaining why they want that, but we see that this is just a story about majorization of Serbs by Bosniaks, just like they are doing today with Croats. Those are all difficult challenges and we cannot remain without our clear national line and our national line is national and people’s gathering, protection of our identity, our religion and protection of our state – the RS – and the right, we are persistently insisting on the right to decide on our status, that our status is not decided by others and to have the right, as all peoples of the world, the right to self-determination which is guaranteed by the highest documents of the UN,” Dodik underlined.

Inzko rejects RS parliament request (RTRS)

The RS parliament adopted on Wednesday conclusions that demand from HR Valentin Inzko to submit a report on work of all HRs in the past 25 years. The RS MPs set the same deadline for delivery of this report as the one that Inzko set to annul awards given to convicted war criminals, i.e. 90 days.  RS Prime Minister (PM) Radovan Viskovic said that the HR should come and present the scope of obligations that the RS respected and the scope of obligations that the other side, i.e. the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FB&H) fulfilled. The ruling parties called on the representatives to support the conclusions arguing that it is of their ethnic interest to stand united, while members of the opposition claim that they were deceived many times on this basis. PDP’s Jelena Trivic argued that there is some game going on with all these topics. The reporter noted that while opposition representatives accused the ruling authorities of difficult economic situation, the ruling officials reminded of transfer of competences of the RS in which honorary president of PDP Mladen Ivanic took part in the past. In this regard, SNSD’s Dusica Solaja said that Ivanic himself confirmed that he took part in talks on introduction of VAT at the level of B&H, customs, military, intelligence services. SNSD Caucus’ representative in the RS parliament Srdjan Mazalica said that Inzko’s failure to appear before the RS parliament would be “an obvious manifestation of irresponsibility and avoiding fulfillment of his obligations in accordance with the DPA”. He added that the proposed conclusions represent the RS’ political stances. On the other hand, the RS opposition warned that this proposal represents mere populism and criticized the fact that there is no unity in terms of this item. The SDS Caucus in the RSNA demanded that this item is withdrawn from the agenda, assessing it to be counter-productive and warning that as such it could provoke Inzko to use the Bonn powers. Head of the SDS Caucus in the RS parliament Miladin Stanic pointed out that SNSD should admit what it intends to achieve with this item, referring to it as “a cuckoo’s egg”. SDS Caucus’ representative in the RS parliament Nebojsa Vukanovic called for turning towards issues of importance for the citizens, rather than to discuss such items. Reporter noted that the key question is what use the RS citizens have from the proposed conclusions within this item. HR Inzko answered the request on Wednesday, saying that he does not plan to file a report to the RS parliament. “Reports of the High Representative are published on the websites of the UN and OHR, and they are available to the representatives of the RS parliament,” stated the OHR. The RS parliament discussed this issue on Tuesday evening and expected the answer to be negative. Members of the SNSD Caucus believe that it was necessary to make a political stance. Viskovic said that they can all agree that they need such a report. He added that whether the report will be presented is the choice of Inzko, but his answer will be observed by the UN Security Council (UN SC) and certain friends of the RS in the OHR and foreign embassies.

US Embassy, EUD and OHR condemn negative rhetoric which undermines reconciliation (Srna/Glas Srpske)

Earlier this week, the anniversary of military operation ‘Buzim ‘93’ was held in Buzim. According to the daily, the event was marked by negative rhetoric which spoke of “Serb-chetnik” offensive, many participants wore uniforms and carried flags of “the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina” (RB&H) and shouted “Allahu Akbar”. Srna asked for a comment from different international organizations. The US Embassy to B&H stated that such acts and rhetoric only deepen the divisions. “There is no room in the public sphere for the language that promotes intolerance and undermines mutual trust and understanding” the US Embassy stated. The EU Delegation to B&H stated that one of the 14 priorities from the European Commission’s Opinion on B&H’s membership application is undertaking concrete steps to promote reconciliation with the goal to overcome the heritage of war. “To that end, all political stakeholders in B&H should express their full dedication to creating an atmosphere suitable for reconciliation”, stated the EU Delegation. OHR stated that B&H needs to work on environment suitable for reconciliation and move away from divisive rhetoric in order to secure a better future for all its citizens.

Ambassadors Sattler, Nelson and Kavales publish joint op-ed underlining importance of electoral reform (Oslobodjenje)

The Head of EU Delegation to B&H Johann Sattler, US Ambassador to B&H Eric Nelson and Head of OSCE Mission to B&H Kathleen Kavalec respectively, published a joint editorial about the electoral reform in B&H, stressing that they all have stated at one point that 2021 needs to be a year of action, when long-awaited reforms will be delivered for sake of progress on EU path and for making B&H more prosperous home for all citizens. “Now that we are in 2021, it is time to talk about details, starting with electoral reform. Reforms are not abstractions, but specific, common-sense changes clearly mapped out in the European Commission Opinion’s 14 Key Priorities, which includes implementation of OSCE/ODIHR and Council of Europe GRECO recommendations”, reads editorial. Ambassadors underlined that these reforms would address deficiencies highlighted in recent general and local elections, adding that they stand ready to support and advise, but the changes will depend of willingness of B&H leaders to take responsibility, talk to each other and make compromises. Also, Ambassadors underlined that real changes will depend of resolve of B&H citizens to push for changes and hold leaders responsible for inaction, adding that there is no time to waste and reforms need to be carried out in 2021, so that 2022 election are not plagued by the same well known deficiencies. Underlining importance of elections in a democratic society, Ambassadors also commended the work of B&H Central Election Commission during the previous elections, but they also stressed that local elections were marred by persistent issues that have given new urgency to implementing long-standing ODIHR recommendations to increase transparency, improve training of election workers and strengthen the power of citizens’ ballots. As one of the most pressing priorities, Ambassadors underlined reform of forming of polling stations commissions (PSC), noting that this important body i.e. members are currently appointed exclusively from political parties and it is difficult to ensure the impartiality and professionalism of PSCs. They stressed that legal reforms can ensure a more balanced composition of PSCs, as well as introduce mechanisms to prevent abuses in appointment procedures, contributing to integrity while preventing irregularities and fraud.

Further on, Ambassadors underlined importance of introduction of new technologies which would contribute to transparency and reducing of fraud and making elections more efficient. Finally, Ambassadors stressed the importance of sanctioning of hateful and offensive language, which would help ensure responsible dialogue. “Free and fair elections are the most powerful tool citizens have to hold political leaders accountable for their action – and inaction – in delivering the European future that B&H citizens want and deserve. With sufficient political will, there is no reason why any of these reforms should be deferred. Changes that make sure that each of your votes counts, free of manipulation or political influence, will put power back in the hands of you, the citizen, to help make that future a reality,” end the Ambassadors.

Novakovic-Bursac says abolition of voting by mail and increase of threshold should be considered; Pekic and Sehic advocate introduction of modern technologies in election process (EuroBlic)

The Head of the EU Delegation to B&H Johann Sattler, Head of the OSCE Mission to B&H Kathleen Kavalec, US Ambassador to B&H Eric Nelson and High Representative Valentin Inzko suggested to the parliament of B&H to again form a working group for development of changes to the Law on Elections of B&H. The daily noted that, even without the initiative of the foreigners, the Law on Elections of B&H needed to be changed again but it is only the question to which extent, apart from the long-expected implementation of the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in ‘Sejdic-Finci vs. B&H’ case. Chair of SNSD Caucus in the House of Representatives (HoR) of B&H Snjezana Novakovic-Bursac said that there is a political agreement signed by HDZ B&H and SDA still in force, which guaranteed that changes to the Law on Elections of B&H will be launched last year already. “Until this biggest moment of misunderstanding and creation of tensions in B&H is solved at the political level, everything else will remain secondary”, Novakovic-Bursac said. The daily reminded that HDZ B&H-SDA agreement was primarily related to Mostar, which got its authorities in the meantime, but also to changes to the Law on Elections. HDZ B&H leader Dragan Covic insisted on solving of the problem of election of the Croat member of the Presidency of B&H so that Croats would get some kind of a legislative guarantee that they will elect their own representative but SDA does not want to easily let go of the possibility of having Bosniaks elect the Croat member of the Presidency of B&H. At the same time, the daily reminded, DF delivered its own version of changes to the Law on Election of B&H to the Parliament of B&H and it is to be expected that DF will insist that none of people who served their prison sentences for war crimes will be able to become an elected official, introduction of modern technologies in election process, removal of ethnic prefixes in election of members of the Presidency of B&H and other changes. Novakovic-Bursac said that there is room to consider abolition of voting by mail and abolition of open election lists, as well as to consider a different manner for nomination of members of polling station committees and to raise the threshold for entry to the parliament. Deputy Chair of SDS, PDP and DNS Caucus Mira Pekic said that 2021 is a perfect year to carry out changes to the Law on Elections of B&H because this is not the election year. Pekic noted that PDP is of the stance technical changes concerning carrying out elections need to be implemented and explained that she is referring to installing of video surveillance in polling stations and scanning of ballots.

B&H Prosecutor’s Office files indictment against Mehmedagic, Cikotic and Druskic (RTRS)

The B&H Prosecutor’s Office filed on Wednesday a new indictment against Director of the B&H Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA) Osman Mehmedagic. The indictment was also filed against B&H Minister of Security Selmo Cikotic and Mehmedagic’s adviser Muriz Druskic. RTRS reported that this is a new indictment with additional evidence in the affair known as “security permits” after the Court of B&H refused to confirm the first one at the beginning of January. Mehmedagic, Cikotic and Druskic are indicted of abuse of office or authority regarding illegal appointment and work of the second-instance commission for security clearance. RTRS unofficially learns that the Court of B&H refused to confirm the previous indictment due to secret evening meetings between Mehmedagic and President of the Court of B&H Ranko Debevec in Sarajevo’s buildings and halls, although the official reason is the lack of evidence and they got a criminal, i.e. a disciplinary investigation for the meetings. The Prosecutor’s Office of B&H conducted additional investigation activities and again filed the indictment and sent it to the Court of B&H for confirmation and now the Court of B&H has eight-day-long deadline to announce its stance on the new indictment.

Plenkovic, Schmidt discuss support to European, reform path of B&H (N1/Vecernji list)

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the German candidate for the position of a new HR in B&H Christian Schmidt discussed on Wednesday the situation in southeast Europe and the support to the European and reform path of B&H. N1 noted that it is still unknown when and whether Schmidt will replace HR Valentin Inzko and the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) will make the final decision about this issue. Vecernji list daily reads that B&H should get a new HR in about one month, if there are no delays in terms of observing the procedures. Daily reminds that the German government nominated Schmidt at proposal of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and that the German Government informed all PIC members late last year that Germany is planning to nominate its candidate (for HR). Daily went on to say that despite the fact the PIC Steering Board nominates a HR, it is the United Nations Security Council (UN SC) that appoints HR. In this context daily reads it is impossible to expect that PIC nominates anyone unless it is certain that candidate will be confirmed by the UN SC.

DF won’t vote for budget before amendments to prosecutorial laws are passed (CdM)

An extraordinary parliamentary session scheduled for 18 February won’t be held, because the MPs of Democratic Montenegro, URA Civic Movement, SNP, Demos and Real Montenegro have given up on that request. The session was supposed to be held in order to discuss the proposed amendments to the Law on the State Prosecutor’s Office and the proposed law on the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime and Corruption. One of the Democratic Front (DF) leaders Milan Knezevic says that DF will not vote for the budget before the amendments to the prosecutorial laws are adopted. At that extraordinary conference, DF has said that it will not take part in any statements until the proposed prosecutorial laws are put on the agenda. The leader of the Movement for Changes and one of the DF leaders Nebojsa Medojevic has said that he, Knezevic and Andrija Mandic received death threats from criminal organizations in the previous period.

Mandic: The crisis of the parliamentary majority (RTCG)

One of the leaders of the DF Andrija Mandic said that the constituents of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro will not participate in any voting in the parliament, until the proposal of the Law on the Prosecution are back to the agenda. They threatened not to vote for the adoption of the budget for 2021, until the deputies are presented with changes to the law on the prosecution. Commenting on the postponement of the session of the parliament at which the judicial laws were supposed to be discussed, he said that the vote on those laws would be the first one in which he would participate. The unilateral decision of a part of the parliamentary majority, as he said, caused a crisis of that same majority. At a press conference in parliament, he said that when they negotiated the laws, they knew that there would be pressure from organized crime, but also from prosecutors, who would do everything to stay in positions that do not belong to them.

Turning point for Democrats and URA (CdM)

This is all a game of nerves now, says CdM observer, Ljubomir Filipovic. URA and Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic must not take another wrong step, because that would mean losing some dust of trust that is left outside. On the other hand, they can’t rule without the DF, Filipovic explains. Failure to pass the budget would seriously shake the government, while passing the law would stop progress towards the EU, he says. In the end, the DF opened the SNS franchise, while Krivokapic and Deputy PM Dritan Abazovic are being slowly tamed, Filipovic points out. The elections in Niksic will show whether Krivokapic will bring additional value to the Democrats, or if he will remain a “lame duck” with minimal support from a circle of Serbian nationalist intellectuals and weaker voices within the Serbian church in Montenegro, he concludes.

Main parties will begin talks about the coming municipal elections next week (Republika)

Representatives of the main political parties will meet next week to discuss proposals to change the electoral code in the run up to the municipal elections in October. One demand on the table is the proposal from VMRO-DPMNE that the elections are held in only one round – currently, in most cases the mayors are elected after a run-off vote, which VMRO insists will be dangerous in conditions of pandemic. Another issue is the use of fingerprint devices to reduce the possibility of abuse. VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Vladimir Misajlovski warned that the process to purchase the devices should have started by now – the opposition party wanted to have them used for the proposed census as well. “We all witnessed bribery during the past elections, as well as during the 2020 general elections and the referendum, when ballot stuffing occurred. We are opposed to the idea of boycotting the elections, and VMRO-DPMNE will win in many cities. I’m certain that we will win the elections,” Misajlovski said.

Mickoski supports open lists and the first-past-the-post model for the coming municipal elections (Republika)

VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski proposed that the coming municipal elections are held in one round – in order to save money but also protect the voters from the coronavirus. Macedonia elects municipal council members in the first round of voting, but electing a mayor often requires a second round of voting two weeks later, due to the high requirement to win the seat outright in the first round. Mickoski also endorsed the idea of open lists, which would allow voters to support a party list of candidates, but also to support individual candidates on the list, unlike the current model where the party leadership can determine who gets the winning positions on the list. “We support preferential lists of council members and a British styled first past the post model for the mayors. It can be applied for the first time in the municipal elections. I see no reason for a second round of voting, unless to allow the government to enhance its blackmail of voters. Having a second round would just amount to spending public funds at a time of a pandemic,” Mickoski said. The elections are supposed to take place in October 2021. SDSM currently dominates the ethnic Macedonian majority municipalities.

Dispute over identity cards threatens Zaev’s coalition (Republika)

The coalition between SDSM and BESA is strained by the dispute over the identity cards, said VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski. In an interview with the Macedonian Radio, Mickoski said that SDSM promised BESA that it will allow the introduction of ethnic identity qualifiers in the identity cards carried by each adult citizen – which is a long-standing demand from parties that represent ethnic Albanians. BESA holds five seats in the parliament – enough to condition the future survival of the PM Zoran Zaev government – and now wants him to deliver. But by extension, it would mean that ethnic Macedonians will also have their identity listed, which is a big problem for Greece. “We Macedonians don’t have our identity listed in the official documents – they declare us as citizens of the country, using the new name. Zoran Zaev and SDSM are trying to impose a new national identity on us and unfortunately, they find support among the smaller players in the opposition,” said Mickoski, who came out in support of the idea that citizens have their ethnic identity listed on the cards, and also demands that the use of the imposed name “North Macedonia” is postponed. Zaev insisted that with the 2018 Prespa Treaty Greece accepted the right of the Macedonians to use this national identification. Greek sources, on the other hand, say that the treaty only allows Macedonians to use the term “Macedonian” to declare their citizenship, and even that with a qualifier “citizen of the Republic of North Macedonia”. BESA wants Zaev to deliver, and he consulted a foreign diplomat, who warned him that adding the national identity Macedonian to the documents would violate the Prespa Treaty. This now creates pressure on Zaev within his coalition and his government is having a glass jaw – it could collapse very quickly, Mickoski said. He blamed the small, populist Levica party of coordinating with Zaev and trying to save him from the situation. Levica filed over a thousand amendments to BESA’s proposal which is meant to block its adoption. This gives Zaev an exit – he can claim that he wanted to fulfill what was agreed in his coalition deal with BESA, but that he was blocked by a third party. VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski said that the essence is simple – with the Prespa Treaty that Zaev signed, the Macedonian national identity is erased and Macedonians are not allowed to self-identify as Macedonians, Nikoloski said during a visit to Tetovo.

Pendarovski doesn’t agree that ethnicity should be included in IDs, but he will sign the Decree (Republika/MKD.mk)

President Stevo Pendarovski says that he personally does not agree that ethnicity should be included ID cards – as envisioned in the proposed amendments to the Law on ID cards submitted by the ruling party Besa, for which there is a previous agreement with SDSM. In an interview with MKD.mk, Pendarovski said that he would probably not veto the new law, if it is adopted in a regular procedure. “If the ruling coalition agrees, if there is a majority and if the law is passed in a regular procedure, I do not have very big arguments against such an attitude so as not to sign a decree. But I personally do not agree that ethnicity should be included in ID cards. There is no democratic state in the world in which there is ethnicity or religion affiliation. I do not mind, I do not think that if this law is passed with such a provision will break up the state or that it will have negative consequences. Personally, I do not agree, but if they vote in that form, I will sign the decree, although I do not agree that that detail should be included in ID cards,” he said.

Kyuchyuk hopes that Macedonia will soon open its EU accession talks (Republika)

Bulgarian member of the European Parliament Ilhan Kyuchyuk is visiting Macedonia, in his capacity of EP rapporteur. Kyuchyuk, who as an ethnic Turk is personally less involved in the national and historic dispute between the two countries, expressed his hope that Macedonia will soon open EU accession talks. Bulgaria is blocking Macedonia as it demands serious concessions on issues of national identity and history. Kyuchyuk met with President Stevo Pendarovski, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski and other top officials in Macedonia. After the meeting, Zaev said that the country is “fully focused on the reforms, especially in the judiciary, and we are not considering any alternatives to EU membership”. Zaev added that bilateral issues of the type that Bulgaria is raising against Macedonia, should not be part of the EU accession process. The Bulgarian MEP said that the “opposition is important in every democracy” and “it could play a constructive role and I would continue to work closely with all political actors” after his meeting with VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski.

Basha meets Slovenian PM: Slovenia, Albania’s strong advocate in EU membership process (Radio Tirana) 

Democratic Party Chairman Lulzim Basha, who is paying an official visit to Slovenia, met with the Prime Minister and Head of the forthcoming EU Presidency Janes Jansa. Democrat leader Basha said that Mr. Janesa. Jansa pledged support for Albania in the integration challenge, stressing that there can be no alternative for Albania, but for EU integration. Prime Minister Jansa assured Basha that Slovenia will be Albania’s strong advocate in the European Union membership process. Both interlocutors also talked about strengthening economic cooperation and attracting and encouraging Slovenian investors to invest in Albania, thus helping the employment and well-being of Albanian citizens.