Skopje, 10 December 2025 (MIA) - SDSM leader Venko Filipche, in response to a reporter's question on whether the party would support the proposal on dismissal of Chief Prosecutor Ljupcho Kocevski, said that SDSM is against the concept of pressure on anyone in the judiciary.

"We are against the concept of pressure on anyone in the judiciary. It must not be allowed. We have peer review mission recommendations on what should be done in the judiciary. Yet, not a single recommendation has been implemented. There is no new law on the Public Prosecutor's Office. There should be a new criminal law in place. Those are the essential things that we need to see in the judiciary, rather than who should hold a certain office, and the question is what are the criteria. Let's bring in the European criteria, let's bring the European Chief Prosecutor to investigate some of the cases that we have highlighted," Filipche told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday. 

According to him, everything the Government undertakes in the judiciary, which is not real reform, leads nowhere and, he added, the citizens don't want that.

"This does not mean that I am acting as anyone's lawyer, least of all the country's chief prosecutor, whom I do not even know personally. But I believe that any party pressure only further blocks the judiciary, something that the citizens don't want. The citizens want reforms and a real judiciary that can be trusted. This is not the mechanism, and this is not happening only now with this pressure on the prosecutor, but it has been happening all the time for the past year and a half," said Filipche. 

He added that SDSM will officially send a letter to the European office very soon, inviting European Chief Prosecutor Laura Kövesi to visit the country and investigate the IPARD scandal.

The Government adopted Tuesday a proposal on the dismissal of Chief Prosecutor Ljupcho Kocevski that will be forwarded to the Parliament. Government Spokeswoman Marija Miteva said the proposal represented a continuation of the proceedings that were temporarily stopped due to the local elections. The proposal, she added, is based on Article 88, Paragraph 1 of the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office, upon an opinion obtained from the Council of Public Prosecutors.

"The reasons for this initiative are well known, and the Government has elaborated them on numerous occasions, consistently, transparently and in the interest of protecting the institutional integrity and accountability. Our goal is clear - strengthening the legal state and ensuring unhindered functioning of law enforcement in the service of citizens," said Miteva. 

Photo: SDSM