Skopje, 29 June 2023 (MIA) – This summer will be relatively hot, with a lot of events on the political stage in the country. Let’s see how they unfold and based on that we will determine the next steps of the Alliance for Albanians (AA), said AA leader and Gostivar Mayor Arben Taravari in an interview Thursday for Telma TV.

According to Taravari, the Mayor of Struga, Ramiz Merko, should immediately resign at least due to moral reasons, after being blacklisted by the United States.

Taravari stressed that there are suspicious about several individuals, and, he said, he expects the U.S. blacklist to be expanded.

“There are strange and interesting events in DUI like never before in the past 20 years of their existence, but these are their own internal affairs. Undoubtedly, there is some internal desynchronization in DUI, but whether AA helped or catalyzed this is a part of the things that should be analyzed,” said Taravari.

The AA leader stressed that the constitutional amendments are currently in the focus at the moment, but that the next step would be to discuss holding parliamentary elections at the same time as the presidential elections, regardless of whether there are 80 MPs for the amendments.

“I don’t think the country needs the luxury of having elections twice in three months, both the presidential and parliamentary elections. We still haven’t discussed this with our coalition partner, nor have we talked about this topic in the party, however, it would be rational for the country to hold elections with the least expenses possible. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider the option of holding early parliamentary elections on the day of the second round of the presidential elections, and they would be early only for two to three months,” said Taravari.

In answer to a journalist’s question, Taravari said AA wasn’t aware there would be a concrete proposal for VMRO-DPMNE’s entry into Government. “We found about the offer and the topics discussed at the meeting from the press conference,” said Taravari.

Taravari said it is important for AA that there is a broad consensus from the political parties, and that they remain focused on the need to adopt the constitutional amendments, since they are the condition for the holding of the second intergovernmental conference with the EU.

 “Everything else is permitted during this period, I think. Nothing else is important but to secure 80 or more MPs. I would like to see 120 MPs in favor. At any price, all political parties have to give their maximum,” said Taravari.

The AA leader said he is disappointed by VMRO-DPMNE withdrawing after the leaders’ meeting.

 “My personal analysis and the analysis within the party is that some kind of PR is being carried out between DUI and VMRO-DPMNE, whether consciously or not. But, DUI ended up as the biggest winner as a result of all the noise. And the impression during this period is that VMRO-DPMNE is working for DUI,” said Taravari.

Taravari said that AA has relatively good relations with all political parties, they are in Government with DUI, but he said, “we have channels of communication with VMRO-DPMNE as well, and with BESA.”

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