Macedonia Nationalists Accused VMRO DPMNE of Betrayal
Hard-line supporters of the VMRO DPMNE party that ran Macedonia for 11 years say they are outraged that the party has broken its promise not to allow the opposition take power.
As the formation of a new government in Macedonia under the Social Democrats, SDSM, looms ever closer, supporters of the once unassailable VMRO DPMNE party – which governed the country for 11 years – say they feel betrayed by their own leadership.
Like many of his co-protesters in the “For United Macedonia” movement, which has been taking to the streets in Skopje for over 70 days, protesting against the announced election of a new government, Sotir, aged 34, says he is frustrated that his party is now passively awaiting the prospect of an SDSM-led administration.
“They are now holding press conferences instead of taking action and arresting those [MPs] who committed a coup [by electing a new speaker in parliament],” he complained.
“They have been calling on us, the people, to take matters into our own hands and defend the country but when we did that, they retreated and called us bullies! This is the ultimate betrayal and they should be ashamed of themselves!” Sotir told BIRN on Thursday.
Party diehards say they are angry that VMRO DPMNE failed to prevent the election of a new speaker of parliament, Talat Xaferi, on April 27, which paves the way for the election of the new government.
They say the party has failed to protect its own supporters who stormed the parliament building that night, and now face criminal prosecution.
“You either react or it is time for new people. It is enough talking, it is time for action,” Pance Dibranov wrote on VMRO DPMNE’s Facebook page. “If you [VMRO DPMNE] defend us like this, I ask you to stop doing it,” he added.
Many supporters have turned to Facebook to demand that the party, which still controls the interim government, start arresting opposition MPs for attempting what they call the “coup” over the speaker, and not idly watch the the new speaker take up his post.
Ratko Mirkovski told party leaders that they should either “lead the people or [submit] collective resignations. There are other brave people inside VMRO!”
Vlado Georgiev, who has been identified by police as one of those who stormed the parliament on April 27 on Facebook accused VMRO DPMNE MPs of betraying them.
He accused the VMRO DPMNE MPs of “sitting like sissies while the Albanian anthem was being sung” in parliament – the new apeaker is an ethnic Albanian – continuing with other expletives.
“You have … denounced us as bullies! I am … denouncing you as traitors!!! We are VMRO-members!!! You are [an unprintable term] and communists, disguised as ‘Komiti’ [Macedonian Ottoman-Era revolutionaries],” Georgiev wrote.
Macedonian police have pinpointed some 30 alleged attackers of MPs and the prosecution has filed criminal charges against 11 of them, two of whom will stand trial for attempted murder.
Despite what its frustrated supporters say, VMRO DPMNE condemned the arrests of those who stormed parliament as a “politically motivated” act and as an attempt to intimidate and hunt down “innocent patriots”.
Source: BalkanInsight
