The Government has initiated 750 charges against VMRO-DPMNE members. This morning they opened the 751-st, said VMRO deputy leader Aleksandar Nikoloski, after the series of dawn raids and arrests against opposition officials.

The arrests are made because the Government is knee deep in scandals. Those arrested include Dimitar Dimovski, member of the VMRO-DPMNE Executive Committee and Dejan Mitevski, head of one of the largest VMRO-DPMNE local branches. With these arrests, the Government begins direct assault against VMRO-DPMNE members. Additionally, six women were arrested, all of them common clerks in various institutions, Nikoloski said.

Nikoloski qualified the raids as assault on outspoken critics of the Government, and in the case of Mitevski, an arrest against a local political leader who managed to turn the large Aerodrom municipality against the Zaev Government.

The opposition party’s Secretary General Igor Janusev added that the arrests are driven by the losing popularity of SDSM.

They are doing this because they are slipping. Their defeat will mean they will be held accountable. This is why Dimitar and Dejan are being harassed today, because they speak the truth. Dimitar spoke out about Zoran Zaev’s crimes and Dejan inflicted them a major defeat in Aerodrom at the last elections, said Janusev.

State prosecutors demanded detention for all involved, Dimovski, Mitevski, former minister Mile Janakieski, and the lower level clerks who are charged along with them. All are charged with abuse of office over the planned construction of decorative steps in the Skopje main Macedonia Square, but also, allegedly, to develop commercial real-estate. The prosecutors claim that the dozen defendants sold publicly owned land to a private company on several occasions.