Interior Minister Nake Culev called on the Government to adopt his proposal that police officers are rewarded for their work over the 70 days of curfew. The police was tasked with policing the curfews that began on March 22 and lasted every evening.

The officers dutifully, professionally and responsibly carried out their tasks. I find it difficult to bear when colleagues in the Government abuse the police to accomplish their political goals. But I insist that the officers need to receive the financial reward they deserve, Culev said.

Officials from the ruling SDSM party frequently used the coronavirus epidemic to meet their political goals – they would selectively accuse groups of citizens of violating the curfew and would also demand that the police heavy-handedly goes after violators, such as in the case of the Ramadan iftar dinners, which would have likely caused incidents.

Culev said that a total of 4.783 citizens were found in violation of the curfews, and 3.110 of them were detained.