We seriously need to prepare for a strong anti-corruption push, which is unfortunately lacking at the moment, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski during the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung conference held today in Skopje. “We have a system that is being eaten away by corruption, which is rotting from corruption”, he warned.

Nikoloski pointed to the reports from international organizations, such as Transparency International, which found Macedonia ranked 111th in the world in fighting corruption – the worst ranking for the country ever.

One aspect of this fight is the legal framework, which, in my opinion, is good. The second issue is the high corruption. We see that this issue is problem number one in Macedonia. We must also not neglect low level corruption, which is what is affecting our citizens the most. In any institution, in hospitals, in municipal courts, corruption from tellers, our citizens are forced to seek connections or friends to get the job done, or need to pay a bribe, Nikoloski said.