Macedonia Minister Survives Dismissal Motion

62 legislators in the 120 seat assembly voted against the motion while only 13 voted in favor of Stavreski’s dismissal.

The nay vote was led by the ruling party, the centre-right VMRO DPMNE party, and its junior coalition partner, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

The motion was tabled by the opposition liberal Democrats, LDP and supported by the Social Democrats, SDSM, the largest opposition party in parliament.
   
The LDP blamed Stavreski for delivering poor economic results, mainly for drafting a budget oriented towards large public spending on non profitable projects at a time when the domestic economy is struggling.

The opposition legislators attacked the government for lying to voters by saying that the country's economic situation is stable, “just like Greece lied to the EU for years that their economy was stable too.”

The opposition pinpointed the government as the main reason for the low liquidity in  the domestic economy, saying that it owes millions of euros in unpaid debt to companies.

For his part Stavreski said that the country, faced with the aftershocks of the global economic downturn from last year, is doing well in comparison to other EU economies.

He boasted that the economy last year suffered only 0.6 per cent decrease and that this year it should be back on track with a predicted growth of some 2 per cent.

Stavreski argued that the country has repaid some of its old debts and that it now has increased space for further borrowing.

Despite its failure to pass the motion, the LDP said that the party's goal of drawing the public's attention to the economy, a subject it said has been avoided by the government, was achieved.