Economy Minister Kresnik Bektesi was defiant today when asked whether he will ask his sister Vlora Bektesi to resign from the MEPSO state managed company, where she was recently hired, or to have his sister in aw Nertila Useini Kaba to resign from the ELEM company. Dozens of Government officials were called out in recent days after the full extent of nepotistic appointments in the public sector was revealed.

I said everything I have to say on this issue. Bearing in mind that I publicly acknowledged that my sister was hired in MEPSO, it is also my position that I didn’t influence her hiring and I should not influence her and ask her to resign, Bektesi said.

When the press pushed him on the issue, demanding to know how come Vlora Bektesi was hired in a public company now, after he was appointed Minister, Bektesi responded with a counter-question: “And why do you work in the media outlets you work in and not in some other outlets?” leaving the journalists confused.

Pressed by the public outrage Prime Minister Zoran Zaev called on the Government officials who influenced the hiring of their relatives to ask them to resign and so far two SDSM members of Parliament did so, but every day brings a mass of new reports about nepotism in the Government. Government officials from the DUI party have so far refused to condemn the practice and ask their relatives to resign.