Biljana Ivanovska, head of the State Anti-Corruption Commission, believes that Macedonia sadly has not been able to achieve progress in the fight against corruption. Ivanovska spoke after a series of new major corruption scandals, including the exceptionally ugly allegations of chemotherapy theft at the Oncology Clinic in Skopje, as well as after changes to the Criminal Code greatly reduced prison terms for politicians caught abusing office.

Unfortunately, we can’t conclude that the situation is improving in the fight against corruption. We adopted a national strategy in an open and inclusive process, but then it was up to the institutions to implement it. In 2021, only 20 percent of the planned measures were taken, and in 2022, we accomplished just 10 percent. Given this situation, I can’t say that matters aree improving, quite the contrary, Ivanovska said.