VMRO-DPMNE raised the issue of the announced vetting of police officers, which the opposition party said is turning into a mechanism to intimidate police officers and purge the service from all those who are not party loyalists.

Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski, who has frequently used the police to detain and harass opposition activists, began the vetting process under which many officers will be asked to re-apply to their jobs and all will have their income status and other personal criteria scrutinized.

This assault on professionals and on all police officers who are not under Minister Spasovski’ political control is meant to advance his loyalists. SDSM is turning the Interior Ministry into a branch of the party, Georgievski said.

Georgievski pointed out to the fact that at the recent press conference, during which Spasovski discussed the vetting process, he was joined by professor and SDSM supporter Nikola Dujovski, who recently had his wife hired in the Ministry, as an example of how the process will be implemented. Another example which Georgievski cited is the hiring of the son of a gas station owner and financier of the SDSM party Dobrin Petrusevski as a communications specialist in the office of Minister Spasovski. Shortly after, the Interior Ministry approved a request by Petrusevski to give him a licence he asked for.