Skopje, 10 September 2025 (MIA) - The laws that need to be drafted in the Ministry of Justice will only mean higher wages for judges and prosecutors, those who have an approval rating of two percent, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski in answer to journalists’ questions on Wednesday.

Mickoski stressed that the laws are a part of an accepted obligation that must be delivered, however, he said, he doesn’t intend to ask the MPs to back the laws “with which the wages of those who have an approval rating of only two percent will be doubled or tripled”.

“Several laws are being drafted at the Justice Ministry – a law on courts, law on prosecutors, law on the judicial council, law on the council of public prosecutors, and the law on prosecutorial and judicial service. These are the six key laws. They share one common denominator – higher wages for judges and prosecutors. That is the reform. This is the reform that needs to be implemented. If someone expects the reform to be something else, that’s not the case. This is what they are demanding, higher wages for those who, instead of being creators of justice, are creators of injustice. But fine, we’ve taken on the obligation, and it must be delivered,” the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister added that a comparative analysis is currently underway on the percentage of budget funds allocated in European countries for judicial institutions, and the Government will follow that example. 

 “We are being asked to pay twice as much as some much, much richer EU countries. Should we be doing that? Paying twice as much as a very rich western European country for these people with a rating of two percent? I don’t think so. And after we collect information with the Ministry of Finance, we will go to the European Commission and present our arguments on this issue, because we can’t afford it. And even less do I, as Prime Minister, want to ask the members of Parliament to vote for a law that would double or triple the wages of those who have a two percent approval rating. That’s not acceptable,” Mickoski said.

Regarding the laws on criminal procedure and the criminal code, the Prime Minister said the previous government removed article 5 and by doing so carried out a general amnesty.  

“Today when a citizen asks me why someone hasn’t been detained and arrested, or why charges haven’t been filed... it’s because they erased the article, it’s very simple. It’s because the statute of limitations expired for the cases that were subject to article 5 which no longer exists. They say sorry but this article doesn’t exist and I am innocent. Even if we restore the article, and we will do so, they will always reference the law that is more beneficial for them, that’s how the rule of law works,” Mickoski said.

Mickoski said the article would be restored, noting that it would be done “the right way”, following a comparative analysis with EU member states, to “clearly define what constitutes major and minor abuse, and to prevent its use as a tool for targeting political opponents”.

“We will restore it, but we will do that the right way, and we will conduct a comparative analysis with members of my cabinet, see what’s the case in France, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, and other countries, and we will follow their example. But we must clearly define what constitutes abuse, because tomorrow some new government might come to power and once again barge with machine guns and masks in the homes of MPs or people who haven’t committed any crimes just because someone wants political revenge. We won’t allow this. So, we are working on this, and it will be adopted by the end of the year, and we will notify the Constitutional Court. But we will do it right, so it is clearly defined what a major abuse is and what a minor abuse is, and to prevent its use as a tool for targeting political opponents. Recently we had a meeting of the growth plan committee, the responsible ministries, and we concluded that we are essentially the best. It is not Montenegro or Albania that are the frontrunners, it’s us, it’s just that we say that somewhat timidly. That’s why we scheduled a media briefing with figures. Unfortunately, we have some obstacles that they don’t have,” the Prime Minister said.

Photo: MIA