Skopje, 12 September 2025 (MIA) - Both the Intelligence Agency (IA) and the National Security Agency (NSA) handed the required documents to the Public Prosecutor's Office (PPO). Let's wait for the PPO to issue its statement, and see what happens next. I am not the one to allow classification or declassification, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in response to a question from opposition SDSM leader Venko Filipche at the Parliament's plenary session on Friday. Mickoski added he assumes that the Public Prosecutor will act in the interest of justice and truth.

Filipche asked Mickoski why he does not allow declassification of wiretap documents connected to allegations of illegal surveillance against him as opposition leader, with identity protection, to see whether there was abuse by the NSA and whether someone should be held accountable.

"I'm thinking about how to answer, but in essence I'll tell you that someone is throwing you to the deep end again. I don't know why you allow this to continue, after all you are the leader of what is still the largest opposition party, and it's still not clear to me why you allow someone to continue throwing you to the deep end. Do you really think that I would come out here just for exhibitionist reasons and say that someone did it so that I can get attention, to defocus a topic, but, you'll see over time, you'll see," Mickoski said at the session for opposition MPs' questions.  

If the Prosecutor's Office does its job as it should, the PM pointed out, you will see who was under surveillance and how in the two agencies, who writes those letters to the media, why they write those letters to the media, what are the motives behind all of that...

"I am not the one to allow classification or declassification, Mr. Filipche. There are other institutions that do that, not me. I only comment on what is being said in public. Being the Prime Minister, it is normal that I receive reports from those institutions, from the security agencies, and it is normal that I know the information contained there, because I hold a security clearance certificate for the highest state secret," said Mickoski. 

According to the PM, what happened is not a recent occurrence, but has been building for years, and in both agencies there were people who were dealing with the police.

"Some others were creating false notes for some people to end up in detention, etc. You send those people around the world to be attaches, etc. I will not go into the details. I assume the Prosecutor's Office, the same prosecutor who you did not allow to be replaced here, because the majority of DUI and SDSM voted, I assume he will act like a public prosecutor in the interest of justice, in the interest of the truth, and will allow declassification, or I don't know what else is there in line with the legal rules, and come out," Mickoski said. 

In his response to Filipche, Mickoski said that the least problem is that he was under surveillance and how, but that members of the SDSM-led government "were also covered, along with journalists, businessmen", asking whether the PM at the time, who is now an MP, was informed that this was being done.

"That is the essence, but that was the time when he was PM. Before him, there was another PM, and I don't know if he even knew that it was being done. Never mind me, I was your political opponent, someone out there decided to play games a little more, okay, I understand, no problem. There were people in your own government who were covered. That is the bigger problem for me. That is why I am telling you that you are being thrown to the deep end again. Drop that matter. Let's talk about other topics," said Mickoski.

The PM noted that the wiretap materials on prosecutors and judges from the Skopje Basic Court cannot be found, a scandal that the Minister of Interior announced at the beginning of the SDSM government's mandate.

"You started your mandate as a government with a wiretap scandal. The Minister of Interior at the time came out with a wiretap scandal, i.e. prosecutors and judges in the Skopje Basic Court were wiretapped. Nobody knows where those materials are. We have been trying to find them for 15 months, but they are gone. One day someone will decide to play games again, just like a former SDSM leader played games and released private conversations in public," said Mickoski.

The PM pointed out that politicians are setting a bad example for citizens and called for discussing topics that are good for citizens, not about petty political points. "Let's leave it to the Prosecutor's Office to resolve this case," Mickoski said. 

Photo: Print Screen / SDSM