The application of the new Law on Internal Affairs and the amendments to the Law on Police will be postponed for the period after the next parliamentary elections, said the Minister of Internal Affairs, Pance Toškovski, in a show on “Alfa” TV.
While the minister Pance Toshkovski claims that this move is to leave no room for the opposition SDSM to justify a future electoral defeat, the leader of the social democrats, Venko Filipce, evaluated the decision as a great victory that prevented the gross partisanship of the police.
“The elections will be played according to the old rules”
Minister Toškovski announced that he will soon propose to the Parliament the postponement of the laws (which were supposed to enter into force on July 1). Since the regular elections are scheduled for about two years, he believes that they should be held according to the current rules so that the opposition cannot oppose the legal amendments.
– In order not to give them an alibi and not to leave room for criticism and to look for an exit scenario, I will propose to the deputies in the Parliament, as soon as possible, that the legal amendments be postponed and come into force after the end of the election process – said Toškovski.
Although he claims that the new solutions are incomparably better than the old ones, the minister emphasized that the delay will leave enough room for the Constitutional Court to review the SDSM initiative without political pressure.
He accused the opposition that “after the narrative of the technical government failed, it is now consciously constructing a new political theme by trying to portray the reforms in the Ministry of Interior as unconstitutional.”
“They admitted they had no legal basis for the law”
On the other hand, the leader of the SDSM, Venko Filipce, said that the withdrawal of the government is a direct result of the strong pressure from the opposition and its initiative to the Constitutional Court.
According to him, the delay has blocked the attempt to put the Ministry of Internal Affairs under full party control.
“This is a victory for the SDSM, for all the citizens of Macedonia and for the police professionals, a victory for expertise and professionalism over partisanship and political control over the police. We have submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court blocking the partisanship of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” replied Filipche, accusing the ruling party of trying to turn the institution into its protection for crime.
Otherwise, the conflict surrounding these laws, which were passed in January after a shortened procedure, culminated at the beginning of April when SDSM submitted an initiative to the Constitutional Court.
The opposition then demanded the immediate annulment of the disputed provisions and a stop to all staff redeployments that Toškovski is implementing based on them.
