Following this evening’s protest through the streets of the capital Skopje, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that nobody believes the office of state prosecutors, as they continue to cover up obvious criminal actions on part of officials of the ruling SDSM party. VMRO activists drove through the city down to the office of the Secretariat for European Affairs, to protest the latest scandal showing abuse of EU educational grants.

We saw how director Lidija Dimova divides European funds. Let’s not forget the earlier scandals, such as the one revealing how the head of the public healthcare fund extorted money from a dialysis provider, then submitted his resignation and that was the end of it. Calling on officials to resign is a trick, Mickoski said, calling for a criminal investigation, instead of just political accountability in the form of resignations.

After evidence of Dimova’s corruption was made public, she was abandoned by her SDSM party, and Deputy Prime Minister Ljupco Nikolovski called on her to resign. But SDSM stopped short of supporting a full criminal investigation into Dimova.