Businessman Fijat Canoski, who is close to the Zaev regime, announced that he is retiring from politics and will step down as leader of the small PEI party. Canoski cited his desire to focus on the family as the reason.

He is involved in a major trial in which he was using the now disgraced Special Prosecutor’s Office in an attempt to extract tens of millions of euros from the state coffers over his Kosmos residential complex that was partially demolished in 2011. An SDSM aligned judge was working hard to approve the huge damages Canoski is requesting, but failed to do so in 2019 and the case went to retrial. Currently the case is again being rushed through the court.