Macedonian Opposition Splits in Parliament

Two prominent opposition MPs, Tito Petkovski and Fijat Canovski, announced the formation of their own parliamentary group this week, which will function separately from the Social Democrat-led opposition.

But they said the new group, jointly comprising about 10 MPs, would remain in opposition and their separation was largely a formal matter.

“We are not shifting sides and we are not joining the ruling [right-wing] bloc,” said Fijat Canovski, whoss small Party for a European Future joined the opposition bloc before the June 5 general election.

“The new group will continue to function in opposition and we already talked about this with [Social Democrat leader] Branko Crvenkovski,” Canovski said.

The opposition lost the recent elections to the bloc gathered around the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

But the Social Democrats increased their tally markedly, doubling their number of legislators in the parliament from 19 before the elections to 43 out of 123.

The VMRO-DPMNE won 56 seats and the rest of the seats went to the parties that represent the country’s large Albanian community.

Prime Minister Gruevski, in power since 2006, is currently preparing for talks on a new government with his Albanians partners in the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

By law, a minimum of five legislators are needed to register a separate group, or caucus, in parliament.

This way, the opposition may theoretically become more influential inside the parliament, as each parliamentary group will have a say at each session.

Petkovski, who heads the small New Social Democrats, also denied plans to shift sides. The formation of a separate group in the parliament was done for practical purposes, he said.

The inaugural session for the new parliament is expected to take place before a June 25 deadline.