Macedonian Foreign Affairs Minister Nikola Dimitrov denied the reports that his department has spent about 25.000 EUR for travel in just a few days, at the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, and additional 17.000 EUR for an item often used for official lunches and other “representation”.

Dimitrov denies the report, insisting that he personally hasn’t traveled at all in March but he confirms that the money was sent out to Macedonian diplomatic missions abroad for their own travel expenses. “This is a regular activity”, Dimitrov says.

His response is highly emotional and uses exceptionally strong language, at one point declaring the media and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party which revealed his spending as “enemies of the Macedonian citizens and the state”, comparing them in the same sentence with the coronavirus.