SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
On Friday, SDSM again called for Gordana Dimitrieska-Kocoska to resign as Finance Minister over her comments, in response to a question from MP Slavjanka Petrovska (who is not married and doesn’t have children), during Thursday’s Q&A session (“On the basis of what do you talk about mothers that have children and how do you know how much a multiple-member family should consume? I have two sons and know very well how much a four-member family should consume.”)
The opposition also stated it would initiate legal changes to penalize every act of such discriminatory speech by officials and announced that an urgent session of the Discrimination Commission would be convened over the Minister’s conduct.
On the other hand, the Finance Minister said she regretted the whole context. She also stressed that the situation was an attempt by the opposition to create a fake topic to divert attention from her work.
Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi, on the other hand, stated that such situations harmed the legislative house’s dignity. He called on everyone to comply with Parliament’s Code of Ethics.
The Gender Equality Platform strongly condemned the “dangerous narrative”. As it pointed out, reducing a woman’s role to just a mother without addressing and solving problems of women more affected by poverty, care for children and the elderly, without gender and social infrastructure is highly disrespectful.
Petrovska herself said she would file a petition before the State Commission for Protection against Discrimination. In response, however, VMRO-DPMNE said on Saturday SDSM had continued its tendencies to self-project itself as attacked every time criticism is levelled and to defocus the public from essential issues.
The same day, in an interview with Sitel, Dimitrieska-Kocoska said that she considered the Petrovska case to be closed, adding that there hadn’t been an insult.
