While the Zaev regime is preparing to hold a controversial census in the midst of the pandemic, during which it will count emigrants as residents, Germany announced that it will postpone its own census.

Germans were supposed to hold the census in 2021 as well, but because of the epidemic, their statistical agency said that it will take place a year later, in May 2022.

But the Zaev regime is not fazed by the epidemic. It accepted demands from the ethnic Albanian parties that long term emigrants are counted as residents, and that much of the census is conducted online, which the opposition said will make the results completely unreliable. “We will end up with three million people”, said VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski.

VMRO proposed dozens of amendments, including one that the census committees use fingerprint devices and to have the results then checked against existing data-bases of citizens – in order to confirm the results and avoid having double counting. But all proposals were rejected by the ruling majority, leading to calls for boycott.