Polityka rządu wobec organizacji pozarządowych w latach 2008‒2016 a kryzys polityczny w Macedonii

Abstrakt

The plan to build a stable state in which two ethnic groups living in Macedonia could coexist was set forth in the framework agreement of 31 August 2001 referred to as the Ohrid Framework Agreement. Creating beneficial conditions for the activity of civil society organisations was one of the main points of the framework agreement.

After the VMRO-DPMNE party gained power in 2006 and the Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski took authoritarian direction, non-governmental organisations became one of the main entities intended for liquidation. VMRO-DPMNE limited their access to financing and media, demonised them, and imposed restrictions on their activists, considered traitors of the nation.

 The Macedonian phone hacking scandal from 2015 revealed many irregularities, including attempts to eradicate non-governmental organisations and their activists. At the same time, it awakened the lethargic and scared civil society. The scale of the protests that started in May 2015 convinced the participants that they were able to revolutionise the Macedonian political arena and to take matters into their own hands.

New independent associations and organisations wishing to change the politics of the state were created. For the first time, the citizens united across ethnic divides.