Skopje, 11 March 2025 (MIA) – Parliament will hold Tuesday the 40th session, whose agenda includes five no-confidence motions against the Judicial Council members elected by Parliament – Vesna Dameva, Pavlina Crvenkosvska, Milazim Mustafa, Tanja Chacharova Ilievska and Selim Ademi. The initiative, filed on February 7, was backed by 67 ruling MPs.

According to the Law on Judicial Council, however, the members themselves should decide whether to resign or not.

The no-confidence motions, according to an explanation posted on the assembly website, were filed due to “inconsistent implementation of competencies, especially due to negligence, ruining the reputation of judges and damaging public trust in the judiciary, and thus the entire judicial system.”

The Judicial Council will hold a session today at 10 am. When asked whether the Judicial Council session is used as an alibi for the members while Parliament will be discussing the no-confidence motions against then, its head Aleksandar Kambovski said that wasn’t the intention.

“When we scheduled our session, we didn’t know that Parliament will hold its session on the same day. Our session is no reason for the parliament session not to take place. If some of our members want to be there [at the session] and to give a statement, we will terminate the session and wait for them to come back,” Kambovski told reporters yesterday responding to questions.

Asked if he expected the members to resign, he said it is a personal act. “It’s an individual decision. I don’t know what my colleagues will decide to do,” Kambovski said.

In Monday’s press conference, SDSM vice president Ana Chupeska said the no-confidence motions is 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, it is 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.

Tanja Chacharova Ilievska, one of the five Judicial Council members, in a statement to the media in February has 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.