Nations in Transit Report Co-Author: North Macedonia had Difficult Year

Alexandra Karppi, one of the authors of Freedom House’s Nations in Transit 2024 report, told VoA Macedonian on Thursday North Macedonia had had a difficult year.

“There were two score declines in North Macedonia, which means that after Serbia, it had the steepest decline in the region. The year was really marked by, I would say, political polarisation and infighting within the ruling coalition and then also with the opposition.

So, VMRO, the main opposition party, continued to play a, probably, obstructionist role.

There was a lot of, let’s say, wheeling and dealing at the end of the year in particular because of the upcoming elections this year and the result were changes to the Criminal Code, very last-minute and very non-transparently, in the fall that actually made the punishments for those convicted of criminal enterprise, but also abuse of power, you know, abuse of position, to be lower,” she stressed.