A group of citizens, apartment holders living in the centre of the city, gathered today to express their dissatisfaction from the decision of the City of Skopje to cut down the trees across hotel “Bristol”. This morning, they were extremely outraged due to the ravaging of their natural environment.

Civil went on the spot and joined the protest of these citizens. We faced tensions and misunderstandings among the people living in the surrounding streets and the construction workers. To avoid incidents, there was also a police presence,

From this location, the President of DOM (Democratic Renewal of Macedonia), Liljana Popovska was accused of being a partner in crime and called to witness the tree-cutting spree.

“You are not the green party you are claiming to be; you are a black party” – accusation on her account were voiced from the citizens of Centre, gathered around the downed trees and bird nests in front of their buildings across hotel “Bristol”.

The decision to remove the greenery from this area, which, in passing, is the last greenery in this part of the city, has been made yesterday by the City of Skopje. The citizens have fully-fledged legal and legitimate right to file a complaint within 15 days; however, the city authorities went against their legal obligation and cut down the trees expeditiously.

Construction of three facilities has been envisaged in the area where the greenery is being removed. One should be used by the public administration, the other is envisaged as the administrative building of ELEM and the third one shall be a multi-storey parking lot.

Several citizens said that there is a possibility for the inhabitants of the neighbouring buildings to organise new protests in the afternoon (5.30 p.m was mentioned), and even to try to take down the fence around the construction site.