VMRO-DPMNE Continues Working According to the Old Statute

Following the change of leadership in VMRO-DPMNE, the party initiated a procedure for drafting a new party statute. The party leader Hristijan Mickoski announced that the new statute would be adopted no later than February last year (2018), but until now (17 June 2019) this has not been done.

The process is not finished yet and I expect it to finish by the end of this month or by the middle of February (2018). The public will be acquainted with all statutory changes and interventions in each part. In the past, VMRO-DPMNE was a pioneer of all innovations on the political scene, and it was the first party to fully undertake an increase of the democratic capacity of that document, said Mickoski in the program “Top Tema“ on Telma at the beginning of last year.  

[Source: Telma TV/Top Tema: “Interview with Hristjan Mickoski”, date: 12 January 2018]

EXPLANATION:

Shortly after the internal party changes in VRMO-DPMNE, after losing the local elections, the new party leadership, headed by Hristijan Mickoski, started a process of changing the party statute in order to, as announced at the end of 2017, strengthen the party organs, their independence and additional democratization of the party.

Furthermore, the opposition called upon all its members to participate in the process of democratization of the statute and, along those lines, to submit proposals to the Statutory Committee.

At the very beginning of 2018, Mickoski stated that the process for adopting the new party statute should finish by January or middle of February at the latest, but this statement was false. As Mickoski then explained, the essence of this process is that the structures at lower party levels, such as municipal committees, are elected in direct elections by party members.

However, instead of keeping the promise, that the new statute of VMRO-DPMNE will be adopted by the end of February (2018), by August (2018) only a draft version was set, for which several municipal committees had a series of remarks. Namely, these remarks mainly referred to provisions that prohibited fractional action and even public expression of different attitudes from the declared party policy, while candidates for public functions had to sign a declaration of unconditional resignation in case of independent action.

Until now (17 June 2019) the new statute of the opposition has not been created, according to which two new party bodies – Council of the President and Council of the Executive Committee – should be formed.

In the meantime, the party functions according to the old statute until they receive a favorable opinion on the proposal from the sister national parties in Europe.

SOURCES:

• Telma – Top Tema (12 January 2018): “Интервју со Христијан Мицкоски” [Accessed on 17 June 2019]
• Nova TV (28 January 2018):  “ВМРО-ДПМНЕ најавува промена во партискиот Статут” [Accessed on 17 June 2019]
• Kurir (12 January 2018) „Мицкоски: Очекувам до крајот на овој месец, евентуално средината на февруари да заврши процесот за промена на статутот на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ“  [Accessed on 17 June 2019]
• Prizma (14 August 2018):  „ВМРО-ДПМНЕ со нов статут: „Наместо меници, безусловни оставки!“

Assessed by: Vlatko Stojanovski

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