Macedonia: The European Union congratulated Macedonians yesterday for scuttling a referendum that sought to withhold powers from the country's Albanian minority.
But nationalists who oppose giving more autonomy to the Albanian community accused the government of rigging the vote to silence criticism of a Western-backed plan to build a multi-ethnic future for the former Yugoslav republic.
"It shows that the citizens have chosen to maintain the course towards the European Union," said EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana, after officials announced that only 26 per cent of Macedonians voted on Sunday, far short of the 50 per cent necessary to validate the poll.
The government of Mr Hari Kostov had threatened to resign if the referendum was successful, but he celebrated alongside Albanian members of his ruling coalition.
"The citizens of Macedonia have shown once again that they are in favour of developing inter-ethnic relations, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the unitary character of the country," Mr Kostov said. He had staked his political future on a crucial part of a 2001 peace plan that dragged Macedonia's 2.2 million people - a quarter of whom are ethnic Albanians - back from the brink of civil war.
Critics say the plan would split the nation along ethnic lines and lead to calls for the creation of a "Greater Albania". But its supporters, which include the UN, the US and the EU, say the only way for Macedonia to move towards its stated ambition of EU and NATO membership is to forge a peaceful, multi-ethnic democracy.
Though Macedonia's Albanian guerrillas gave up arms and vowed to pursue their aims politically, few doubt that many weapons were hidden and would reappear if tension turned to violence. Albanian men wielding Kalashnikov rifles were reported to be patrolling some villages on Sunday in a show of defiance against a Skopje government that they accuse of foot-dragging over promised reforms.