Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi demanded an apology from the State Anti-Corruption Commission (DKSK), after its representatives said that former members of Parliament who applied for benefits will receive 100,000 denars (1.600 EUR) per month for a period of up to a year.

Xhaferi insisted that the actual value of the monthly benefit is far lower than that. Xhaferi did not specify the actual amount that is being paid out.

Earlier DKSK representative Katica Nikolovska called on the Parliament to reduce the amounts paid to former Government officials and members of Parliament. She said that the former category receive a little over a 1,000 EUR in the benefit package. She said that 78 members of Parliament applied for the benefit between 2014 and 2018, as did 29 Government officials. Most of them used the benefit for the maximum period available, she said. Of the 107 in total, 89 were hired shortly after the benefit period expired – half of them back in the public sector.