French Ambassador to Macedonia Christian Thimonier discussed the growing number of corruption cases, and referred to the practice as the cancer of the country. In an interview with the Macedonian Radio, the Ambassador said that corruption is eating away at the economic prosperity and the rule of law.

Anybody who was caught in a certain kind of a corruption scandal, who is responsible or who closes the eyes to allow corruption should be asked why he is doing so. And the citizens need to ask themselves. The citizens should vote and in light of all these affairs, the citizens can be at two minds – a healthy approach would be to vote and respond for the future of the country, and the other, negative approach would be to fall into apathy, to say that “they are all the same” and that responding is pointless. This closes the circle and people are pushed to leave the country, Thimonier said.

He called for fair and transparent elections and asked that the issue of corruption is kept high in the public awareness. “The development of a modern European society is under threat”, the Ambassador warned.

He expressed his sorrow that the law on state prosecutors, that was rammed through Parliament in a scandalous procedure on the last day before dissolution, was not adopted with a broader consensus of all main political parties. VMRO-DPMNE voted against the law, so the ruling majority was forced to turn to a group of bribed and blackmailed members of Parliament, to make additional concessions to the Albanian nationalist cause and to order an unprecedented second vote once the law was rejected in the first vote.

The greatest benefit for the Parliament would have been if the law was adopted with the approval of all political parties. That was not the case. The majority was narrower than we hoped it would be. Formally, the law is now considered adopted, Thimonier said.

France blocked Macedonia from opening EU accession talks in October 2019, and all eyes are on President Macron as to what he will do in the coming European Council meetings.

Interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski met wtih Thimonier today to discuss the latest EC progress report which again recommended that Macedonia is allowed to open accession talks, along with Albania. Spasovski insisted that the report is the result of the “dedicated work of the current Government that resolved a number of reform issues, including the law on prosecutors”, the Government said in its press release after the meeting.