The SDSM party continues to try and create a pre-election scandal over the Eko Club company in Bitola. After an environment inspector filmed the company as improperly storing medical waste it was hired to dispose of, the ruling party insists that Eko Club is linked to the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.

Interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski today called on state prosecutors to investigate the company.

The facts that were uncovered after the city of Skopje took over the Drisla dump site raise questions that need to be investigated. We are talking about the public interest of all the citizens. I want the investigation to be completed as soon as possible. Nobody will be forgiven for this, Spasovski said.
Hungary today declared that it has stripped Eko Club owner Saso Janakievski from the post of honorary consul in Bitola, which was given to him in 2012.

But VMRO-DPMNE points that the evidence of links between this company and the opposition party is very thin and that the public campaign against it seems forced, especially amid revelations that the Zaev Government allowed import of petroleum coke to be used as fuel, even by factories operated by the Zaev family.

Media outlets have reported that Eko Club received public contracts to dispose of waste while VMRO-DPMNE was in office. They report that the scandalous actions of the company were discovered in December. But in January, the Zaev and SDSM led Government continued to give contracts to the same company. In the last year, Eko Club signed 60 contracts with public institutions worth 130 million denars (over two million EUR). Its contract with the public road maintenance company alone is worth 60 million denars, said VMRO spokesman Dimitar Arsovski. This contract was signed by Zoran Kitanov, a close ally of former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, and it hired the company for brush clearance along public roads over a period of two years.

The Medical Faculty in Skopje, which is also under SDSM management, signed a contract with Eko Club in mid January, after its poor practices with regard to medical waste were known to the Government. Similar contracts were signed by Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska and by the state ran ELEM energy company.

As we investigate this case, we also call for an investigation in the responsibilty Zoran Zaev has for importing petroleum coke for his companies. Out of the nine companies who imported this highly polluting type of fuel, five are linked to the Zaev family. In February 2019 alone 42.000 tons of petroleum coke were imported. This amounts to 2.000 trucks of dirty fuel which releases toxins in the air, Arsovski said.