The Macedonian Parliament today approved the proposed changes to the Criminal Code, with which mandatory sentences for abuse of office are reduced from 5 to 4 years in prison. This will likely allow a number of members of Parliament, their relatives and associates, charged in the past few years, to escape prison time and to have the cases against them dropped due to the statute of limitations.

VMRO-DPMNE walked out of the Parliament before the proposal was put to the vote. Party leader Hristijan Mickoski said that it is now clear that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is prepared to completely denigrate the rule of law in Macedonia in order to secure the necessary votes to amend the Constitution and rename the country into North Macedonia. It is expected that the list of direct or indirect beneficiaries will include Elizabeta Kanceska Milevska, Vladanka Avirovik and Zekir Ramcilovic, who are among the members of Parliament whose votes Zaev desperately needs to push through the constitutional amendments. Other members of Parliament like Krsto Mukoski, Ljuben Arnaudov and Saso Vasilevski are covered by a previously adopted custom made amnesty law.

A number of left wing groups which protested along with the now ruling SDSM party against the proposal for amnesty for politicians when it was offered in 2016, now asked their former fellow protesters in the Parliament to drop their plan for amnesty. Ultimately, 64 members of Parliament from the SDSM and DUI led majority voted in favor of the proposal, with only one abstention.