Parliament passed Thursday in a fast-track procedure the draft-law on amendments to the law on minimal wage, with 59 votes “in favor”.

MP Zaklina Lazarevska from SDSM informed that they are proposing a new increase of the minimum wage of 14,500 denars which will be valid from December 2019 until March 2020 when, as she said, we expect to have legal compliance and as we have started we will reach the salary which we promised in our election campaign, to a minimum salary of 16,000 denars.

Lawmakers from VMRO-DPMNE announced they would back the law, but consider it to be a populist measure before the election and that it has not been explained how it reached the sum of 14,500 denars since no analysis has been provided.

Blagoja Despotoski from VMRO-DPMNE said that he would vote in support of this law because, as he said, he would always be on the side of the workers and that he would support any legal solution that would mean something to them.

He said that after the elections were called, the ruling majority will promise everything to everyone and asked what would happen to the country’s economy after the elections. He thinks it is necessary to improve the business climate in which, as he said, there is uncertainty and it is getting worse. There is a need to increase employee productivity and take action on why highly skilled people go abroad. According to him, drastic surgery, the rule of law, legal regulation and security is needed.