Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said Monday that efforts are being made to accept the proposals of the opposition regarding the Census Law, pointing out that the opposition parties have been involved in this process for more than a year and a half.

All this year and a half since we have been discussing the census, the opposition has been involved. There have been working groups, both from the government and the opposition, the director of the State Statistical Office held several meetings, said Zaev.

He explained that there are three categories of census – one are total citizens, the second part resident citizens, ie all citizens living in the country and the third group are citizens who have emigrated for a longer period of one year. According to him, that makes the debate on ethnicity or what the percentages and the like are pointless and irrational.

The opposition made a new proposal to use fingerprint. I do not know how the citizens who have moved out will use the fingerprint. We make efforts. The Minister of Justice immediately contacted donors to see if we could provide donations, we have embassies that have over 20 million euros of support for the elections in the country, so we ask them to allocate five million euros, then to buy five thousand fingerprint terminals that we use for the elections, but here they will also help the census, said Zaev.

The census, he stressed, is the responsibility of the citizens, and they should  registered in full compliance with Eurostat standards.

He warned that if one of the political parties, the government or the opposition, does not approve the law, a census will not be held.

We have elections in the fall. 2022 is already late. We are one of the few countries in the world, and the only one I think in Europe that has not conducted a census for 18 years, said Zaev.