Skopje, 25 March 2025 (MIA) – I’m sorry this had had to happen for everyone to become aware that things were done wrongly for more than three decades, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Tuesday vowing his government will defeat “all the mafias that have ruled, unfortunately.”

“We inherited a devastated system, but we will fix it,” Mickoski said responding to a reporter’s question after a cornerstone laying ceremony in Skopje’s Radishani settlement.

Macedonia has to be a decent place for living, he stressed adding his government is tasked with making sure the capacities of the institutions, including inspectorates, the interior ministry and prison police, are strengthened in a bid the system to function flawlessly.

Asked about the shortage of inspectors at the State Market Inspectorate and the Labour Inspectorate, Mickoski said everything that is necessary will be done, including new hirings.

Asked to comment on allegations by the opposition that the investigation is biased, Mickoski said that random political qualifications should be based on evidence.

He said he supports the public prosecution office in its investigation. “Anyone suspected of having any kind of role in this case or in other similar cases should be held accountable,” the PM added.

Regarding DUI’s accusations of the Kochani investigation being marred by political prosecution, Mickoski said he regrets the fact that DUI “hasn’t left the system it is in for more than 22 years.”

“Instead of offering condolences and joining the investigation, they tried to give the case an ethnic character in order to score some political points from the incidents that claimed innocent lives,” Mickoski said adding the government will continue fighting against such “deviant behaviour”.

MIA file photo