The leader of the group of citizens that attempted to reconstruct the church in Galate, Dusko Pavlovski, announced that he is withdrawing from the initiative for reconstruction and restoration of the church.
“My intention is not to cause inter-ethnic tensions with our work. We only wanted to clean the yard around the church, to put new windows and to repaint its façade, and there is no construction or reconstruction work at all,” Pavlovski said.
On Tuesday, police officers halted the works of the people around the church, prompting them to stage a protest at the Municipality of Vrapciste and to altercate with police officers, resulting in two arrests.