Skopje, 11 March 2025 (MIA) - Parliament adopted Tuesday the no-confidence motions against five members of the Judicial Council – Vesna Dameva, Pavlina Crvenkovska, Milazim Mustafa, Tanja Chacharova Ilievska and Selim Ademi. The motions, however, do not result in automatic dismissals of the members from the Judicial Council.

The motions were filed back in February by MPs from the ruling coalition.

The no-confidence motions against the five members note they all “had a significant contribution to endangering the independence, professionalism and reputation of the judiciary and the judges and contributed to the drop in the public’s trust in the judiciary”. The motions state that due to the vote of no-confidence, the five members have lost “the legitimacy to participate and make decisions in the work of the Judicial Council”.

According to the Law on Judicial Council, despite the no-confidence motions, the members themselves decide whether they will step down from their posts. 

At the session of Parliament, Alliance for Albanians MP Halil Snopçe said the five member of the Judicial Council failed to meet the conditions to serve the law and the national interests and were instead led by "political interests".

"Their activity was political, and as a result they weren't successful in their work as members of the Judicial Council. It seems that these members did not prioritize the national interest and the interest of the citizens in their work, but instead prioritized the interests of those who elected them. They did not support justice, but worked in line with political interests. As MPs we must act. The public trust in the judiciary cannot be lifted with the same judges and prosecutors," Snopçe said.

Tanja Chacharova Ilievska, one of the five Judicial Council members, in a statement to the media in February said she has been performing her duties as member of the Judicial Council conscientiously and honorably. “I feel neither moral nor professional responsibility to resign,” she stated.

The motion for dismissal submitted by MPs from VMRO-DPMNE, VLEN and ZNAM, according to Chacharova Ilievska, does not state which of her individual actions as member of the Council were illegitimate. She said the motion seems more like a dismissal of the Judicial Council as a collective body, since it does not focus on the specific work of the individual members that are targeted by the motions.

“This is a discriminatory attitude towards members of the Judicial Council who, in accordance with the Constitution and the law, are equals. The principle of the equality of members of the Council has been violated,” Chacharova Ilievska said.

At a press conference on Monday, SDSM vice president Ana Chupeska said the no-confidence motions are a direct and blatant violation of the constitutional principle of rule of law and of the separation of powers into legislative, executive and judicial.

According to SDSM, she said, they are a systematic and coordinated attack against the judicial system. “This government has no solution to reform the judiciary, it is only projecting onto the country its internal manners of authoritarianism and absolutism implemented in their own party,” Chupeska.

SDSM's MPs did not participate in Tuesday’s session. 

Photo: Screenshot