Zoran Zaev was defensive today when asked about the latest State Department report, which identified corruption in the high levels of his Government. The report, published last week, found that “there have been credible allegations of corruption in law enforcement, the judiciary, and many other sectors”.

Absolutely not. There is no corruption identified nowhere in the highest echelons of power, not even in the second echelon. It was not identified among ministers, directors, it was found in systemic analyses, in a portion of the administrative functioning of the institutions. That is why we appointed a Deputy Prime Minister tasked with fighting crime and corruption, and we are working on the issue for ten months now, Zaev said, before citing the more favorable portions of the report that deal with less important issues.