The Foundation Open Society – Macedonia respects the right of all citizens to express their dissent by means of protests, but appeals with the organizers and the protesters to demonstrate their democratic capacity for holding peaceful rallies. In the last days, we have witnessed a display of violence and hate speech in the public and on the social media that threaten our multiethnic society, cohabitation and security of the state.
During the debate in the legislature, we expect the organizers and the protesters not to allow the situation to escalate in undesired direction! From the institutions we expect efficient response and measures to prevent and sanction all and any violence, because we do not need new Black Mondays and Bloody Thursdays!
In our opinion, violent protests cannot be justified by any means or goals; we need a sound mind, reason and wisdom to demonstrate, as we have done many times before, that we are a mature society and capable of bringing out the best from difficult and complicated moments and can make the right decision for the future of the state.
In the legislature, we expect to see argument-based and constructive debate of opposing opinions in respect to the content, political and technical aspects of the proposal, especially in terms of what we stand to gain if the negotiating framework is accepted, i.e. what we stand to lose if it is rejected, and most importantly, we expect to hear sustained arguments about what are the challenges and how they could be addressed.
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14 July 2022