The 500 employees of the Vodostopanstvo irrigation systems management company are left without salaries for two months, VMRO-DPMNE said in a press release. Cvetan Tripunovski from the opposition warns that, while the Agriculture Ministry is organizing pricey cocktails and the recently removed minister Ljupco Nikolovski is having fun with Zoran Zaev, hundreds of employees in the crucial systems can’t afford even basic public healthcare.

Five hundred families are left without money for two months now and can’t go see a doctor. We ask the Vodostopanstvo union why are they silent about the situation, while we see the expensive cocktails thrown by the Ministry to welcome the new Minister, Tripunovski said.

Even worse than just leaving the employees without funds, cuts to the Vodostopanstvo company can leave crucial irrigation canals filled in and could damage crop yields across the country, Tripunovski added.