Under strong pressure to produce results in the fight against corruption, after the dismal report from Transparency International, Zaev’s Deputy Prime Minister charged with fighting corruption Ljupco Nikolovski yesterday loudly announced the removal of a low level local official.

Upon my request, the Government ordered the removal of Risto Culakovski from his position of member of the Management Board of the student Koco Racin student campus in Bitola. Culakovski is removed because of a conflict of interest that was reported to my office by the Anti-Corruption Commission, Nikolovski tweeted, declaring the sacking of the unknown local board member.

Nikolovski also insisted that he is looking so closely into the actions of Government appointees, “I’m counting how many glasses of water they drink”, he said, drawing ridicule in a country that is drowning in high level corruption.

Instead of providing badly needed anti-corruption activities, the people are being gas-lighted. No top official faces any investigation for what they have done. Macedonia is not at the top of the international lists of corruption because of the activities of some no-name local SDSM official, but because of the actions of Zoran Zaev, Radmila Sekerinska, Dragi Raskovski and others from the top of the Government, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party said in response.

VMRO reminds Nikolovski that there is no accountability for his boss Zaev, even after he was publicly named as the recipient of the stash of money from the major Racket scandal. “We saw Den Doncev stuff money into his bag. We heard Dragi Raskovski negotiate a 2.6 million EUR cut from an air-traffic control equipment deal. Mayor Kurto Dudus was set free with just a warning, and Mayor Boro Stojcev did not face any serious penalties for smuggling cigarettes, in fact, he is now rewarded with a marijuana license from Zaev”, VMRO-DPMNE adds in its press release, listing one a few of the major corruption scandals of the Zaev regime.