Macedonia has made almost no progress in the fight against corruption. Despite strong pressure from the international community and the embassies in Skopje to do something to fight corruption, the latest report by Transparency International shows that the country is standing still – from ranking as the 86th country in the world in 2021, we are now at the 85th place.

Macedonia suffered a dramatic decline during the term of Zoran Zaev, when we dropped to 106th place in corruption in the world. During the term of the VMRO-DPMNE government, Macedonia was among the 60 best-ranked countries in the world, which is now an imaginary noun, especially considering the collapse of trust in the judiciary and the daily serious corruption scandals, prison escapes and the issuing of passports to international criminals. After the drop in the ranking list, Zaev’s government defended itself that it was a matter of perception, that is, an impression of corruption, for which it received a sharp rebuke from US Ambassador Byrnes.

The current leadership in the embassy, supported by the British embassy and the EU embassy, has been demanding for several months that the authorities start seriously fighting corruption. The US has even sent a team of experts to assess which of the current officials should be blacklisted and face US sanctions for corruption.