VMRO-DPMNE Secretary General Igor Janusev accused the Government of completely subverting the judiciary to its will and using it for political persecution after the Criminal Court in Skopje accepted the charges for alleged improper financing of the main opposition party, precisely as Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is trying to get he votes he needs in Parliamenet to amend the Constitution. The case will mean additional charges for VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament, more then a dozen of whom are already under various charges and investigations, and some of whom have already caved in to this pressure and agreed to vote with the Government in order to rename the country.

The Special Prosecutors Office is constructing mechanisms to pressure, blackmail and then bargain with VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament so they will accept the amendments to the Constitution which our party finds completely unacceptable. This criminal case is a purely political construct, it has nothing to do with the law and is part of Zaev’s policy of blackmail and pressure. Faced with the fact that the citizens rejected the amendments to rename the country, the Government is resorting to all disposable means to silence any source of criticism and anybody who opposes SDSM and Zaev in their anti-Macedonian policies, Janusev said.

During the previous vote when Zaev needed a two thirds majority, judges gave orders to release VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament from detention as soon as they would agree to vote with Zaev. Krsto Mukoski, Ljuben Arnaudov and Sase Vasilevski, who were charged with “terrorism” relented under the pressure and later negotiated an amnesty for themselves and for five other members of Parliament who were promptly removed from VMRO-DPMNE. A company owned by the Mukoski family then received public contracts worth hundreds of thousands of EUR, in apparent attempt to further secure the vote.

Other former VMRO-DPMNE members of Parliament are also negotiating amnesty deals for themselves, and a public contract given to a company close to Kavadarci mayor Mitko Jancev is likely being used to influence the vote of Panco Minov, from the same city.