Free Macedonia from captivity

The Citizens for Macedonia coalition appealed to the international community: "Citizens' expectations are to get freedom and democracy back rather than another "toilet paper" agreement". As part of the coalition, CIVIL - Center for Freedom, fully supports this document, which reflects the demands of the progressive and pro-European civil society in the Republic of Macedonia. In addition, CIVIL has more demands and proposals that will be published in a separate document.

The public address of the Citizens for Macedonia coalition is directed to the international and domestic public in general and to the representatives listed below, in particular:

Johannes Hahn, EC Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations

Richard Howitt, MEP Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats

Eduard Kukan, MEP Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats)

Ivo Vajgl, MEP Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

MEPs who are members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee EU-Macedonia

Chairpersons of the parliamentary groups in the European Parliament

Ambassadors of the EU Member States in Macedonia

Ambassador of the United States in Macedonia

Dear Sirs and Madams,

We address you on behalf of over 80 civil society organizations and activist groups that have decided to organize themselves into the civic and non-partisan coalition “Citizens for Macedonia” with the single aim of bringing back the society to those to whom it belongs: the citizens of Macedonia.

We write this letter encountering the next round of negotiations between four leaders of the four largest political parties in Macedonia, for a resolution of the deepest political crisis Macedonia has ever seen, taking place tomorrow (Tuesday, 02 June 2015) in Skopje mediated by the Commissioner Johannes Hahn and MEP Mr. Howitt, MEP Mr. Kukan and MEP Mr. Vajgl.

We wholeheartedly agree that civil society in any democratic society should act as check-and-balance to ruling authorities and are unison in saying that our society is no longer democratic and that we have exhausted all avenues and have invested all efforts to bring reason to the current government in Macedonia.

This government refuses to listen to the reason and therefore it should leave and free the country from its captivity. We no longer have time, patience, or faith in those that have been leading the state, because they are steering it towards demise, are irresponsibly wasting the country’s wealth and are forcing our children to emigrate, never to return again.

Once you are into these crucial negotiations or you are in any way involved in this crisis you should bear in mind that this is not a struggle between political parties. This is a struggle between the citizens and Gruevski’s power-players. This is a struggle for bringing back the society and the state in the hands of the citizens of Macedonia.

Our civic coalition is unison in the premise that powers of any future government must be curtailed and that conditions, incentives and support must be secured for active, vocal and critical-minded citizens.

Together we stand behind the principle of equal opportunities for all individuals in the society. We stand behind the principle of social justice and active protection and care for human rights of each and every person, especially of the members of minority and marginalized groups. We must show solidarity, join forces and help one another for the purpose of faster delivery of justice, freedom of media and victory over fear.

We are unified that democracy, pluralism and citizens’ participation in decision making should be practiced on day-to-day basis, in all spheres of social life, not only on the Election Day. We support diversity and freedom of speech, not one-mindedness. We want free society, not controlled life and scared citizens.

We advocate for meaningful participation of youth and women in vital societal and political processes, as opposed to government’s attempts for their decorative and manipulating participation. Young people are the present and the future and they must be acknowledged and treated as partners in the society.

We unanimously demand immediate establishment of a caretaker government that would clean the Voter List, free the public broadcaster MRT from government’s control, appoint an independent Public Prosecutor and organize completely free and democratic elections that would reflect the actual political will of the citizens of Macedonia. The composition of the caretaker government is a matter of agreement between the main political parties. However, that government should exclude all the current Government members, as all of them have been largely compromised with their words and deeds registered on the wiretapped conversations published by the оpposition political parties. Participation of any current Government member in the caretaker government would undermine the credibility of the transitional process and trust in just resolution of the political crisis.

Last, but not least important, we would like to encourage the effort of the EU institutions and the EU Member States for finding an exit out of the turmoil that the long-lasting wrong political practices of the incumbent ruling parties have produced. However, we urge you to take care about the democratic and European values on the way and give your maximum to extinguish the dictatorial, harmful and devastating political practices so as they never take place again rather than to calm the rage of the citizens and bring the country back to “normality” that would explode in a larger crisis very soon.

Finally, we would like to demand a meeting with Commissioner Hahn and the MEPs involved in some of their future visits to Macedonia in order to elaborate on our positions and arguments inasmuch as to offer our help.

Best regards,

Civil society organizations and activist groups from the coalition “Citizens for Macedonia”

http://gragjanite.mk/podrzhuvachi-lista/