A SPLIT IN GOVERNMENT COALITION

Subject: Skopje-split in government coalition

AIM, Skopje, June 7, 1995

Summary: Although in the end declared to be of minor importance even by the Liberals, the case of distribution of money as compensation for election expenses led to a serious crisis in the relations of two greatest and most significant coalition partners in present-day Macedonian Government - the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia and the Liberal Party.

Just seven months after the 'spectacular' victory at the last parliamentarian elections (which was to a considerable extent backed by abstention of the opposition in the second round) the well-known slogan of the coalition Alliance for Macedonia (SZM- consisting of the Social-Democratic Party of Macedonia-SDSM, the Liberal Party-LP, and the Socialist Party-SP) - "Together..." is acquiring "supplements" such as "Together... to power", accompanied with comments that it is much harder for them to be together and to divide power.

The split which appeared in the coalition SZM, concerning the relations between the Social Democrats (SDSM) of the Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski and the Liberals (LP) of Stojan Andov, current Chairman of the Macedonian Parliament, certainly is not the first, but is probably the severest. It is a dispute which appeared in the course of May concerning payments as compensation for election expenses which the Liberals have not received to this day. All other parties and independent candidates received their shares of the election money (80 denars or about 3 German marks for each vote they won), but the most important fact for the Liberals was that the Social Democrats had received the money (way back in February) and that the Miniser of finance who decided about the sequence of payments, is a member of the leadership of SDSM. That is how the Liberals publicly accused the Minister of finance, Jane Milovski, since recently the Vice-President of the SDSM, of having abused his official post and, as they claimed (and still have not "repented" for it), reallocated the money assigned to the Liberals into the cash-box of his own party. Referring to strong evidence, the Liberals threatened that they would institute legal proceedings to prove complete "corruptness" of its coalition partner. On the other hand, obviously excited, but also quite certain of his honesty, the Minister of finance publicly responded to the challenge of the Liberals with a counter-challenge that they (the Liberals) had to either provide evidence or publicly admit that they had been wrong, that is, that they unfoundedly slandered the Minister.

In the whole story which followed, it became the least important who was guilty of what, since even a month after the first move which initiated it, neither have the Liberals instigated legal proceedings, nor have they apologized, nor has the Minister further insisted on defending his honour. A major question arose instead: will the coalition finally break? The reason for this question lies in the fact that this is already the third open conflict between the Liberals and the Social Democrats after the elections. The first two conflicts, the one after the "Hard Rock" scandal when the Liberals openly accused the Social Democrats for being linked to the underground, and the second when the deputies of the Liberal Party (29 of them) refused to ratify the mandate of the new cabinet of Branko Crvenkovski due to the participation of a minister from the Party for Democratic Prosperity (PDP) in it, who had publicly supported the initiative for opening of the university in Albanian language in Tetovo. At the time, the coalition SZM somehow survived, but it is quite normal that it all left deep scars which threaten to broaden. Even the harmlessness and triviality of the last case, which were a few days ago certified by the President of the Liberals, clearly show that the relations between the two partners are seriously shaken up. Although real reasons for estrangement between the two parties are still under embargo imposed by the main election slogan of the coalition SZM according to which state interests are much more significant than those of the political parties, which was, as claimed, the essential motive for creation of the coalition in the first place, it is assumed that this is all the result of the wish of the Liberals to disassociate themselves from the Social Democrats in order to play a more prominent role in the possible early elections in formation of a new government. The public secret that the Liberals are disappointed with their election "plunder" of just four "second-rate" portfolios in the current Government, just like the Albanians from the PDP who have three times less seats in the Parliament, speaks in favour of this asumption. The boldest assumptions claim that the Liberals might even be the possible leaders of the disunited opposition in case of early elections. That this assumptions is not altogether impossible is also certified by the fact that the Liberals and the biggest opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE, are coalition parties in the assmebly of the capital where one third of the total population of Macedonia is concentrated. And that the relations between the Liberals and the opposition are growing surprisingly warm-hearted can be verified by the statement of the secretary of the Liberal Party that the VMRO-DPMNE and the Democtaric Party of the former leader of Social Democrats, Petar Gosev, are invited to be the guests at the convention of the Liberals which will be held in the course of the month. Although the Liberals explained this gesture as an expression of the democratic spirit of their party, in the Macedonian public this move is assessed as a contrast to another gesture of the Liberals in relation to the Social Democrats. Namely, it was noticed that, at the second convention of the SDSM, after the speech of the President of this party, Branko Crvenkovski, representatives of the Liberals at the convention were the only among those present who failed to stand up to greet the speaker. The explanation given by the Liberals was that the times of personality cult have passed; but, whether these signals mark the beginning of a new political climate on the Macedonian political scene remains to be seen.

IBRAHIM MEHMETI