On an initiative by SDSM, 35 MPs of the ruling coalition, VMRO-DPMNE’s Independent Group, Besa and DPA have signed the motion to call on an urgent parliamentary session and it was submitted at the Parliament. The Parliamentary speaker Talat Xhaferi will have to make the next move and to decide whether he will schedule a parliamentary session that would have occurred despite the decision to dissolve the parliament on the 16th of February.
According to Article 63, the MP’s mandate can be extended only in case of a war or a state of emergency, which means that one of the conditions has been met with the current state of emergency. This is what the MPs have stated as the reason for the request. The proposal for scheduling an urgent parliamentary session can be submittd by at least 20 MPs which is a condition that was met with the submitted request.
The signed MPs propose the speaker to schedule an urgent session in order to verify the two decisions by the Macedonian President on the 18th of March and the 16th of April to declare a state of emergency in Macedonia. These MPs stressed that the Parliament is the organ that make this decision including to end the state of emergency, which will allow the Governemnt to stop making decrees as soon as the danger of the coronavirus spread is over.
The Parliamentary speaker Talat Xhaferi stated yesterday that he doesn’t have a mandate to abolish the decision to dissolve itself, stressing that the Constitution has planned for a situation when the Parliament will not be able to reconvene.
The opposition party VMRO-DPMNE confirmed that the Parliament cannot reconvene because it dissolved and that the Constitution is very clear about this issue. Still, the party’s Vice President, Aleksandar Nikolovski said that the party will make a decisions additionally but which will be in line with the Constitution, if President Xhaferi decides to summon an emergency parliamentary session.
