SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English

Struga Mayor Ramiz Merko has been charged in relation to the procurement of an Audi. On Friday, Islam Abazi, Head of the Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organised Crime and Corruption, said the charge was a result of an initiative from the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption. The maximum prison sentence is five years. Merko, who was blacklisted by ...

In an interview on Friday, Public Prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski said the changes to Article 353 of the Criminal Code (abuse of official position and authorisation) had been made very quickly, adding that neither the people from the sector nor the Public Prosecutor’s Office had been consulted. According to him, when the type and duration of the punishment is determined, the ...

SDSM leader Dimitar Kovacevski, in the frames of his working visit to Rome, attended and addressed the joint event of the Italian Socialist Party and the country’s Democratic Party, in cooperation with the European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity and the CEE Gender Network. Since SDSM came to power, he stated, all democratic progress parameters have seen a jump. Regarding ...

In Turkiye on Friday, Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani participated in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, where he addressed the panel headlined “Challenges and Opportunities in the Balkans”. Commenting on the state of affairs in the region, he said it continued to be vulnerable, with complex issues, adding that frustrations that had been created in the region might very easily be channelled ...

Traffic on the state roads is ongoing in winter conditions, on wet roads. Reduced visibility due to fog from 50 to 100 meters on the Gjavato mountain pass. All road routes in the country are passable. Smaller landslides may occur on certain road routes that pass through gorges and cuts. JP Makedonijapat appeals for careful management of the vehicles, respect ...

VMRO-DPMNE believes Stevo Pendarovski doesn’t have the credibility to be the President. On Thursday, Mile Lefkov, MP from the opposition party, asked whether Pendarovski had been forced to enter the race because nobody else from SDSM, not even ex-Interior Minister Spasovski, wanted to lose. “On 6 December, Pendarovski personally said he wasn’t planning to run for a second term. Media ...

Parliament voted through on Thursday the changes to six laws filed by SDSM parliamentarians aiming to limit the salaries of officials. The previous day, the need to adopt the changes had been adopted in the shortened procedure. According to the changes, salaries of officials will not rise as a result of the average salary increase. The laws in question are: ...

On Thursday, Chief Public Prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski met with the EU Delegation’s Head, Ambassador David Geer, and representatives of the Delegation. Kocevski expressed gratitude for the EU’s support for both his Office and the judiciary. Together with Ambassador Geer, they discussed the remarks from the European Commission’s last report and activities already being taken by the Office to implement the ...

The statute of limitations over the Tenders case, opened by the now-defunct Special Prosecutor’s Office, has expired, too, due to last year’s changes to the Criminal Code. In the case, ex-Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska was among the defendants.  The process concerns the tenders for construction works on the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle for Statehood and Independence. Due to the ...

On Thursday in Tirana, caretaker PM Talat Xhaferi delivered an address at the High-Level Conference on the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The event is a continuation of the talks started in Skopje in January. Xhaferi underlined the importance of the Common Regional Market as an opportunity for benefits for citizens from the EU’s internal market as early as ...