Skopje, 15 January 2025 (MIA) — It is still unclear whether the parliamentary Committee on Social Policy, Demography and Youth chair Ilire Dauti will resign from her post or be dismissed after she lost Friday's confidence vote in Parliament. Unless she submits her resignation, her fate remains to be decided by the parliamentary Committee on Election and Appointment Issues, Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi said Tuesday in a press release.

"It is important to note that the confidence vote, in itself, does not carry legal consequences," Parliament Speaker Gashi said, adding that he had not received any resignations from any committee chairs so far.

According to him, dismissals were to be initiated by parliamentary groups or MPs and handled by the parliamentary Committee on Election and Appointment Issues.

The Committee on Election and Appointment Issues chair Gjorgjija Sajkoski told MIA that committee members did not have the authority to take steps on their own and were waiting for a motion from parliamentary groups.

Sajkovski also said that after a lost confidence vote, any appointed official should submit their resignation on moral grounds.

The Levica parliamentary group said they would give a few days to the European Front coalition and its member Dauti to decide what to do. 

"The European Front announced it would issue a statement by Thursday on what they would do about replacing her," Levica's Borislav Krmov told MIA. "It's the right thing to do to give her a few days to resign."

If she does not resign from her post, Levica will put a motion for her dismissal before the Committee on Election and Appointment Issues, according to Krmov.

The European Front's Arbr Ademi, however, told MIA on Tuesday that Dauti had their full political support.

According to the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, Dauti does not have the credibility to chair the parliamentary committee any longer. Their coalition partner ZNAM asked the European Front to propose an new committee chair from their ranks, and the opposition SDSM called on Gashi to announce the next steps regarding Dauti.

Dauti lost the no-confidence vote in Parliament on Friday after 61 MPs — from Levica, VMRO-DPMNE, and ZNAM — voted for her ouster. The ethnic Albanian bloc was against her leaving her post, and SDSM MPs left the session saying her ouster would not be a solution to the problem. 

The motion of no confidence against Dauti was moved by Levica in November because she had blocked the adoption of the Defenders Law through her "unconscionable, irresponsible, unconstitutional and illegal actions." 

The bill had been submitted by SDSM. Dauti never put it on the agenda of the committee she chaired. mr/