Thewesternbalkans.
The leader of the Alliance for Albanians (AA) and Minister of Health, Arben Taravari, announced on the evening of May 12 that the party has decided to leave the ruling coalition in the Republic of North Macedonia. AA is part of the Albanian coalition VLEN, consisting of five small Albanian parties.
Taravari explained that the Central Presidency and the chairmen of the party’s branches have decided to move into opposition. “We are returning to the citizens, in the local elections in October we will have a much better result,” he said. “We have not implemented the changes we promised and the citizens are criticizing us.”
Taravari stressed that the dissatisfaction among the Albanian electorate in North Macedonia is great, especially because of the so-called balancer – a mechanism for ethnic balance in appointments in the state administration, as well as because of the situation with the country’s European path. He noted that ethnic Albanians believe that the attitude towards them is worse than before.
Comments: The Alliance for Albanians, led by Taravari, decided to participate in the upcoming local elections with its own lists. Following this decision, the Alliance’s coalition partners in VLEN decided that the coalition would become a party, but without the Alliance.
Recently, the Minister of Ecology and Deputy Prime Minister Izet Medxiti and leader of the Democratic Movement from the ruling coalition of Albanian parties VLEN stated that he expects Taravari to leave the government, just as he left the VLEN coalition for the upcoming local elections. He indicated that Taravari cannot cooperate with the opposition Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) and be part of the government.
Kasami, leader of BESA (part of the VLEN coalition) and mayor of Tetovo said: “A. Taravari will not be part of the government, but AA members who do not agree with him (and with Taravari’s cooperation with A. Ahmeti, DUI), will be able to remain in the executive branch.”
Prime Minister H. Mickoski noted: “I least expected A. Taravari to return to Ali Ahmeti’s embrace… I am convinced that this is a decision of a few, not a decision of the AA membership…” Mickoski noted that the government is stable, strong and has a large majority with or without Taravari.
The AA move is rooted in the internal dynamics of the VLEN coalition, which in the last four or five months has been more concerned with internal compromises than with reform issues. Despite this move, the Mickoski cabinet retains its majority in the Macedonian parliament.
