28/04/2017 Monitoring
“We are shocked by the storming of the Parliament yesterday in Skopje. We firmly condemn these violent and unacceptable attacks against parliamentarians. Violence has no place in a democracy,” declared the co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for post-monitoring dialogue with “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”, Lise Christoffersen (Norway, SOC) and Valeriu Ghiletchi (Republic of Moldova, EPP/CD). “We call on all political parties and stakeholders to refrain from fuelling the tensions and to show responsibility by fostering dialogue and paving the way to a peaceful political solution.”
“In democratic countries, the Speaker of Parliament and the government must be designated through political dialogue, in line with the choice expressed by the voters and democratic principles. The Parliamentary Assembly will closely follow the ongoing developments: it is time to put an end to the political dead-lock, four months after parliamentary elections took place. Citizens deserve that their interests and expectations are addressed with dignity and calm, namely the launch of the necessary and urgent reforms we have been advocating to secure democracy, the rule of law and human rights, for the benefit of all citizens.”
“We expect the Macedonian authorities to take all necessary steps to overcome this crisis and to re-establish functioning democratic institutions”.