English
The protests organized by the SSM union are politicized, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski today, while condemning the comments made by SSM chief Slobodan Trendafilov against a female VMRO-DPMNE member of Parliament. A small protest took place in downtown Skopje today, as the SSM union demands an increase of the minimum wage to 600 EUR.
The opposition found its champion in Trendafilov. It is legitimate, if they think that it will harm the Government in this way. We will fight to prove the opposite. What the Government is doing now is using legal mechanisms to increase the minimum wage in accordance with the law, said Mickoski, who concluded an agreement with several other unions, representing public sector workers, to increase salaries for over 11,000 employees over two years.
Trendafilov used ugly langauge against VMRO member of Parliament Dafina Stojanovska, who was one of the many officials and media outlets who shared a photograph showing Trendafilov using an official vehicle for personal purposes. The photo included Trendafilov’s children, but their faces were blurred.
We see a nervous man who poured out a salvo of insults. As a public official he should become accustomed to public criticism. I saw his weak excuses that he was using the vehicle for official business, but I’m more concerned about the level of culture of a man who wanted to present himself as a concerned parent, but used such language against a woman and a mother, said Mickoski.