Interim Prime Minister Oliver Spasovski confirmed that the Government is still considering the proposal from his SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev to greatly reduce public sector salaries down to the minimum wage over two months. Zaev himself backtracked on the proposal after he was faced with a fierce backlash, but today he warned the public that the revenue hole in the budget is beyond anything we’ve ever had.

We are looking to cut many items in the budget, travel, purchase of vehicles and furniture, all non-essentials. There is a proposal to place the administration on the minimum wage (230 EUR). There should be cuts, it is one of the proposals, and the response from the parties was to be expected. We have an economic team, the proposals are being analyzed and we will make a decision this month. There might be even harsher measures in the future. Of course, one of them would be to place all office holders on the minimum wage as well, Spasovski said.

The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party warned that this would destroy public consumption and spending, which will contract the economy even further. They are proposing lending 600 million EUR and tapping 400 million more in bond issues.