Strikers Step Up Protests in Macedonia

Macedonia's main opposition party is mulling whether to actively join ongoing protests staged by striking tobacco growers and other farmers.

"We support the tobacco growers and we will soon reach a decision on whether to call on our membership to join them in protests," Social Democrat spokesman Emilijan Stankovic told Balkan Insight.

After spending Tuesday in front of the parliament building in Skopje, dissatisfied farmers, angered by what they saw as the refusal of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party to help them, urged other political parties to join their protests.

Meanwhile, other groups have started joining the tobacco growers, who are protesting over the low price offered for their crop.

Workers left without jobs by the collapse of former state firms have expressed solidarity with the tobacco growers and have announced their own protests.

"The government acts as if we do not exist so we will start behaving as if there is no government as well," one protest leader, liljana Georgievska, said.

These mostly middle-aged jobless workers say no employer will want them at their age. For months, they have been holding weekly rallies in Skopje, demanding payments of 100 euro a month until there is an agreement over their pension and other employment rights.

Dairy farmers and grape and rice growers are also considering street action over what they say are deteriorating conditions in agriculture.

"People are angry and they may well channel their anger into more protests," Ilija Aceski, sociology professor at Skopje's Sts Cyril and Methodius University, said.

He predicts more radical protests in the coming months, fueled by constant price rises, but fears they could be abused by political parties for their own battles. 

On Tuesday, there were parallel farmers' protests in Skopje, one of which was staged against the opposition Social Democrats. 

Both groups of protestors insisted that they were the "real" representatives of the country's farmers. The ruling VMRO DPMNE party and the Social Democrats traded accusations over who was organizing which protest.

Experts warn that in a Macedonia, where over 30 per cent of the population are unemployed and over 30 per cent live below the UN-defined poverty line, there is a growing danger of social unrest.