Deputy Prime Minister Ljupco Nikolovski refused to call for the removal of the scandal ridden Government adviser Dragi Raskovski. Raskovski, who is one of the closest people to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, faced numerous scandals in the first term of the Government, and now faces calls to resign even from people within the ruling SDSM party after it was made clear that the got the Interior Ministry to purchase unnecessary software he developed for 80,000 EUR.

Nikolovski, who is supposed to be in charge of fighting corruption within the Zaev regime, was asked by a news outlet why he hasn’t called for Raskovski’s resignation, but did so in several similar cases involving lower echelon people.

Nikolovski responded that this is a different type of a case, because the appointment of advisers is up to the Prime Minister. In his response, Nikolovski implied that the code of ethics which was used to remove officials like Lidija Dimova – head of the EU education programs – does not apply to Raskovski. Raskovski is now facing a criminal investigation in his latest scandal after his proximity to Zave protected him in several previous, even greater corruption affairs.