On Friday, Deputy Interior Minister Astrit Iseni said on social media disciplinary proceedings would be launched against the police officer who’d removed the Albanian flag from a lamppost. As he pointed out, every Ministry employee has the obligation to respect laws and symbols of all ethnic communities in the country.
The following day, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski stated that he’d seen the video. As he stated, an official note has been drawn up by the person that was on top of the vehicle, but also by another official person.
“One is an ethnic Macedonian, whereas the other is an ethnic Albanian,” the Minister stated, adding that everyone who broke the law would be held liable.
According to the video, the police officer uses the police van to reach the flag. Martin Efremov, who heads the Independent Trade Union of Police, however, criticised, as he said, the public and verbal lynching of officers by politicians, “regardless of where it comes from”.
According to him, though every police officer is required to be held liable if there is wrongdoing on their part, there are disciplinary proceedings within the Ministry for that. As he stated, the verbal and public lynching, regardless of whether it is from Iseni or Toskovski, means that they have overstepped authority and put themselves above the law, collective agreements, and procedures.