Interim Interior Minister Nake Culev ordered the removal of politically linked commander Primislav Dimovski, who was appointed as head of the newly reorganized rapid response police unit.

Dimovski, known as a strong SDSM party loyalist, who used to work for the now thoroughly disgraced Special Prosecutor’s Office, was appointed head of the reformed Alfa unit. The unit was subject to much controversy lately, as with just days before his removal from the position of Interior MInister, Oliver Spasovski ordered the unit to be abolished and then immediately reformed, in a move clearly meant to more easily re-assign SDSM party loyalists to key positions. The Alfa unit will likely be called to play a major role in case of disturbances during the April 2020 elections.

According to the law governing the 100 days period before the elections, the interim Interior Minister Culev, who was sworn in yesterday as the VMRO-DPMNE candidate for this position, has the right to replace 15 top officers and directors in the Interior Ministry. Primislav Dimovski was the first. Other officials set to be replaced include the police chiefs of Skopje, Veles, Bitola, Strumica, Stip and Ohrid, and the directors of the organized crime unit, the internal control, the special police unit and the riot police.

SDSM abused both the police and the judiciary wholesale, in its campaign of political persecution of VMRO-DPMNE. Culev announced that, as interim Minister, he will also investigate the large number of last minute appointments made by his predecessor Spasovski.