Hundreds of cars joined the three drive – through protests call for by the VMRO-DPMNE party in Skopje, Prilep and Ohrid this afternoon.

Protesters decked their cars with Macedonian and EU flags, as well as stickers and signs aimed at the high level corruption cases involving the Zaev Government. One of them had the Prime Minister with donkey ears – a reference to the major scandal involving his political ally managing education funds made available by the European Union. The sign was put on the door of the Energy Regulatory Committee – which is led by a Zaev loyalist and recently hiked energy prices by 7.4 percent – after an election during which Zaev insisted that electricity prices will remain low.

 

VMRO-DPMNE is protesting to demand the reversal of the energy price hike and to demand that the Committee head Marko Bislimoski resigns. The Committee needs to be staffed by actual experts, not by people who operate on orders from Zoran Zaev and his Government, said Vladimir Neloski from VMRO who spoke in front of the Committee office.

He called on the Government to put an end to corrupt payments such as the ones now widely reported in the management of EU education funds, and to divert such spending to help citizens who are hit by the growing economic crisis.

 

Protesters in Prilep called for the immediate release of Jane Cento, great-grandson of Macedonia’s first post-war President Metodija Andonov – Cento. Jane Cento was sentenced to 15 years in prison in a highly politicized trial over the April 2017 incident in the Parliament.