Bojan Hristovski, the newly appointed head of the ANB security service, meets all the necessary criteria for the appointment, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, answering media questions. Hristovski was fired by the politicized leadership of ANB as the Zaev regime “reformed” the agency and removed dozens of agents who were not SDSM party loyalists.

Hristovski announced that he will focus on investigating the politization and abuses in the service under its previous two SDSM appointed directors. In response, media outlets affiliated with SDSM are accusing him of not meeting the criteria for the appointment.

I can declare that all the legal criteria were met. The Anti-Corruption Commission can investigate the appointment, and I call on it to do so, Prime Minister Mickoski said.

One of the technical issues raised in the media is Hristovski’s English language certificate, which he obtained from a school in Bulgaria. Hristovski said that at the time waiting times to take the exam in Macedonia were long, which forced him to go to Bulgaria.

If there are some omissions in this case, I will ask for accountability. But only if that is concluded by an appropriate institution, and not the opposition SDSM party and former intelligence officers who turned the security agencies into bastions of their struggle against the opposition and are now scared knowing what they’ve done. The pressure coming from these informant-UDBA installations in the ranks of SDSM and DUI are what motivates us to work harder, Mickoski said, referring to the old Communist era name of the intelligence service UDBA that was consistently used by the left wing parties to attack their pro-democratic political opponents.