Skopje, 20 March 2023 (MIA) — Members of Parliament from VMRO-DPMNE and Levica have submitted more than 4,000 amendments to block four laws foreseeing higher salaries of judges, public prosecutors, and members of the Judicial Council and the Council of Public Prosecutors.

The four laws were to be reviewed at a session of the Inter-Community Relations Committee. When the committee found that about 500 amendments had been submitted for each of the laws, the session was adjourned.

VMRO-DPMNE MP Dejancho Eftimov told a press conference in Parliament that the government was insisting on giving judges and prosecutors raises at a time of raging inflation, uncertain wages for workers, and impoverished citizens.

Levica MPs Dimitar Apasiev and Borislav Krmov submitted a total of 2,400 amendments.

The judges' salaries were the least important in a much needed radical reform in the judiciary, they said, after pointing out that the legal system was corrupt and the public mistrusted it as it had become “a family profession trapped in the constraints of nepotism, class privilege, and cronyism.” mr/