Criticism

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, in regards to the Law on the use of languages, last night on Alsat M television stated that the crisis exists because some of the politicians want to take credit for someone else’s achievement, reminding DUI’s members that this law is not theirs, but that it belongs to all those who supported it and voted for it, and that it must be in the spirit of “One society for all”. In terms of whether there is a disagreement between SDSM and DUI because Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Osmani had stated that according to him the law should not be submitted to the Venice Commission, Zaev said that the Vice President of the Government had forgotten about the conclusion from the Government, and that he as president of the government considers that the Law is constitutional and defines the Albanian language as the second official language, that only the Macedonian language will be used for international relations, and that the Macedonian language is the primary language.

Election announcement

VMRO-DPMNE on January 4 published a public call for applications for candidates for the presidential race that is to take place in the spring. Longtime VMRO-DPMNE MP, Vlatko Gjorcev, has applied for running for a presidential candidate of his party. According to unofficial information, the second candidate that has applied is a supporter of the party who has not been exposed to the public.

Court

Former Republic Public Prosecutor Marko Zvrlevski has been in the Skopje Public Prosecutor’s Office for questioning about the conversations in the telephone exchange of the new building of the Prosecutor’s Office, stated “Nezavisen vesnik”. He is the last one on the list of witnesses who have been summoned until now for this case, which is still in a pretrial procedure.

Justice

The Prosecutor’s Office rejected the reports against 11 employees in the Public Institution Inter-Municipal Center for Social Works – Skopje, for the case with the 12-year-old girl from the orphans home “25 May”, for which CIVIL published testimonies of her father. The case was disclosed by the European Roma Rights Centre (ЕRRC), which informed that the girl had to have an abortion because she became pregnant following the sexual harassment she was exposed to as a protégé of the state childcare institution “25 May” in Skopje.

Reaction

The Network for Protection against Discrimination, in which members are the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, the Coalition MARGINS, the Foundation Open Society – Macedonia, H.E.P.A – Health Education and Research Association, the Association HOPS – Options for healthy life, ECE – Association for Emancipation, Solidarity and Equality of Women, ROMA S.O.S – Roma Organization for Multicultural Affirmation, came out with an announcement, a reaction to the work of the Ombudsman.

According to the member organizations of the Network, the practice until now shows that the indications for the need of taking measures are not appropriate mechanisms in the fight against discriminatory and disturbing behavior and action by the police, whereas the Ombudsman does not monitor whether the recommended measures really are being taken. They say that the number of reported cases of inappropriate action by police officers is growing, and the impunity for such behavior by the bodies for equality, and not punishing the officers from the Sector for Internal Control and Prosecution just encourages this behavior and action and decreases confidence in the mechanisms of protection.

Eco – condemnation

The movement Eco Guerilla from Tetovo, today sent out a reaction due to the “lack of seriousness of the Government of RM”, with the publishing of the strategic plan for developing the road infrastructure, where Tetovo is “neglected”. In their reaction, they demand immediate revision of the plan and construction of the ring road that will have a serious effect in reducing the pollution and traffic.

Initiative

The initiative “I demand an answer” of CIVIL – Center for Freedom that enables the citizens to ask questions and to demand answers from the competent bodies, which are responsible for ensuring its citizens good living conditions, continues further.

The idea of the initiative is for citizens, through a video, to ask a politician, public figure, mayor, institution, that is, all the competent institutions, a question that is of their concern, that they consider should be answered. The citizens may send the questions in a video format (selfie video) to CIVIL’s Facebook page, the Facebook page of Citizen Journalists (private message) or at civil.macedonia@gmail.com.

Perspectives 2019

CIVIL Media has continued with the publication of a series of interviews and texts with which it recapitulates the political and social reality of the year that has passed, and is trying, through conversations with selected experts and public figures to reveal the perspectives for 2019.

Before the public is now the new series “Perspectives 2019”, in which for now you can look at the views of Rozeta Trajan, Мirjana Maleska, Меrsiha Smailovik, Мirjana Najcevska, Husein Ademi, Маrta Gusar, Faton Aliti, Sashko Poposki, Saso Ordanoski, Аrianit Xhaferi, Аkif Kariman, Ognen Janeski, Коco Andonovski, Мladen Cadikovski and Маrjan Risteski.

B. Jordanovska