Kumanovo Mayor Maksim Dimitrievski accused the Government of tampering with his coronavirus testing, as part of the growing political feud between the two. The allegation comes after Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce said that the Ministry is sending evidence to the police for a potential criminal case against Dimitrievski over the way he organized a meeting with Government officials.

The municipal Kumanovo crisis center had several top Government officials for a meeting in mid February, and the next day Dimitrievski received the results and was found to be Covid-19 positive. This prompted interim Prime MInister Oliver Spasovski, who is Dimitrievski’s rival from the same Kumanovo SDSM party branch, Filipce and Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani into mandatory self-isolation for attending the meeting. Earlier this week Dimitrievski was found negative to the coronavirus.

This is clearly a staged case. I will take all legally available measures. We have violation of the laws and of human rights. It’s not a matter of political infighting, it’s a matter of having different positions and views of the situation between the local and state crisis center, Dimitrievski said.

The Mayor has been asking for a full quarantine to be imposed in Kumanovo for weeks, as the crisis spread to the level that it is the worst affected large city in Macedonia, but the Government refused to give the order. Instead, top Government officials came for a meeting meant to be a show of support, but ended up in quarantine.

Dimitrievski referred to the warning from Filipce that he will be investigated as a witch-hunt and said that it is the job of the central Government to organize the testing regime. “It is not our fault that the system was badly set up by Filipce.

Shortly after he made the statement to Telma TV, the head of the state sanitary inspection Irina Sotirova – Buhova said that he will also be investigated for violating his order to self-quarantine and having a second test done tha eventually came out negative. “Mayor Dimitrievski would’ve been allowed to leave his home only in case of a deteriorating health situation and then, he could only be transported straight to an appropriate infectious diseases unit”, Sotirova said. She announced that the Mayor will be fined with between 300 and 600 EUR.