Gordana Dimitrieska – Kocoska asked whether the ruling SDSM party was deliberately delaying the unravelling of the troubled Eurostandard Bank until political insiders were able to collect their deposits. The bank, owned by oligarch Trifun Kostovski, collapsed last week plunging hundreds of depositors and tens of thousands of regular customers in uncertainty.

It’s a legitimate question that needs to be answered – why were the elections rushed only to have a bank collapse shortly afterwards. Was it because companies close to the Government were allowed to pull their deposits first? It’s obvious that the entire financial oversight system we have in place has failed, Dimitrieska said.

Finance Minister Nina Angelovska famously withdrew 250,000 EUR in deposits just months before the bank went under, after receiving insider informations that it is in dire straits. Dimitrieska pointed to a statement from SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev who acknowledged that the party leadership knew about the state of the bank while Angelovska was pulling out her deposit and leaving small deposit holders out to dry. Kostovski says that that banks was seriously troubled for a year, but that his calls to put it under administration by the Central Bank were rejected.

Dimitrieska put the damage caused to the financial system at 20 million EUR, while 90,000 citizens who had accounts with the bank are left in serious uncertainty. Eurostandard is a relatively small bank but due to its exclusive contract with the Macedonian Post Office it has reach unrivalled by other banks, and operates even in the smallest towns in the country.