Skopje, 26 August 2024 (MIA) - Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski spoke Monday about plans to establish a special team and a hotline that would allow citizens to report corruption.

In an interview for TV Alfa, Mickoski said citizens would be able to report being asked for a bribe or if someone is intentionally delaying something they owe to the citizens. After the report, Mickoski said the investigative bodies would contact them and “all deviant behavior within the institutions will drop, while the perpetrators face justice”.

The perception today, stressed Mickoski, “is that we are a criminal country, which is why this fight will only be amplified as of September”.

“I believe in the presumption of innocence, and no one is guilty until proven otherwise, but for all those for whom there are founded suspicions of crime and firm evidence, they will all face justice and their political affiliation won’t matter,” Mickoski said.

This, he said, applies to all elected and appointed officials, regardless of if they are from the previous or current Government.

“Many cases and dossiers are currently being analyzed, and they involve former high officials. But let’s be clear, this should not be perceived as a political witch-hunt, and it will also apply to those that are appointed now, by this Government. If they break the law, I guarantee, regardless of who they are, they will be held responsible,” Mickoski stressed.

Regarding the statements about an alleged destabilization in the country in the fall, Mickoski said “the people who turned the country into their property in the past seven years and thought they are irreplaceable and eternal will seek marginalized group and motivate them to destabilize the country for money”.

“They will try to do this through ethnic tensions, since there is no other way. They can’t attract people because even their former supporters don’t support them. In the absence of long-term mass protests, since money isn’t an issue for them, they will seek marginalized groups who they will motivate with money to destabilize the country,” Mickoski said.

Asked about judicial reforms, Mickoski said the public’s patience could expire while they are waiting for proposals from experts “causing us to be the victim due to the failure of others”, and this, he said, is something they won’t allow.

“We have no intention of dissolving the Judicial Council and the Council of Public Prosecutors and replacing them with others. Our goal with this reform is to dissolve these bodies, and to have judges and prosecutors propose the new members instead of having members proposed by the Government, by Parliament, the President. Our wish is for them to choose the members by themselves. As a Government, we would allocate a percentage of the budget for them to spend on their own, but not without supervision. This will be done by a parliamentary committee, so we can see how taxpayers’ money are spent,” Mickoski said. 

Photo: MIA Archive