NEWS OF THE DAY: Freedom House Report – North Macedonia notes significant democratic progress especially in the criteria – electoral process and independent media
The Government of the Republic of North Macedonia will continue with strong intensity to cooperate with all stakeholders and to create an environment for continuous promotion of democracy and freedom in our country, announced the Government press service following the latest report of Freedom House “States in Transition”, in which it is assessed that North Macedonia notes significant democratic progress, especially in the criteria – electoral process and independent media.
“The Government acknowledges all citizens, organization, communities, media and institutions, which with their democratic capacities and actions enable the democratic progress of the country and encourages even stronger engagement in the future”, is said in the announcement.
STATEMENT OF THE DAY: Deskoska: The fear from elections makes the opposition spin, the claims about the Venice Commission are not true
“It’s interesting to see how the fear from elections and the opposition’s awareness of losing them, makes some people spin in the most illiterate and unprofessional way that the Venice Commission has recommended that at least 60 days need to pass after the state of emergency expires in order for elections to be organized. This simply is not true”, stressed Deskoska. WITHOUT FILTER: Nakje Chulev’s video is plagiarism, but that’s the least of problems!
Xhabir Deralla: In addition to being plagiarism of the video dedicated to the Turkish emergency medical service, this video is a bitter reminder of a dark time, the time of Gruevski’s regime.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
The Institute for Public Health today registered 22 recovered patients: Skopje -2, Kumanovo-6, Stip-3, Prilep-7, Tetovo-1, Struga-1, Kocani – 2. A 70-year-old patient from Veles died on the way to the Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Skopje, who had been hospitalized in the Infectious Diseases Ward in the hospital in Veles since May 4 and was transferred to Skopje due to worsening of his condition, announced the Ministry of Health.
In the past 24 hours, as was pointed out, 332 tests have been conducted and 33 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, as follows by cities: Skopje-11, Kumanovo-2, Stip-1, Prilep-5, Tetovo-2, Veles-9, Bitola-2, Kriva Palanka-1.
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Minister of Health Venko Filipce today once again repeated that there are no discussions in the Commission for Infectious Disease on the elections and election process.
Replying to a journalist question whether the possibility for elections that are insisted by political actors in the country is being considered, Filipce said that as of today’s meeting of the Commission, this topic had not been discussed.
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A working group composed of members of the Commission for Infectious Diseases and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is reviewing several options on how the kindergartens should be organized. What is known so far is that the screening that will start next week will include all kindergarten employees.
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20 monitors have arrived, an additional 25,000 N95 face masks, 100,000 surgical masks, 750,000 pairs of gloves, 10,000 safety glasses, bringing the total value of EU assistance together with the ventilators that have arrived or are to arrive to 3,2 million euros, said Minister of Health Venko Filipce today at a press conference.
He indicated that 20 ventilators are also to arrive from Norway and with these and the 20 from the EU and 15 that we have confirmed through UNDP, there is a significant increase in the number of ventilator machines.
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In the past 24 hours, 40 people across the country have disobeyed the ban on movement, of which 29 have been detained, while appropriate measures will follow for the rest, announced the police.
In the same period on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia, 70 people have been issued decisions for isolation and 25 people have signed statements for isolation.
FLASH NEWS
Deputy Prime Minister Radmila Sekerinska today said that elections will be organized as soon as possible, if the situation with the coronavirus epidemic allows this. The Minister of Defence, who visited Negotino today and checked the reconstruction of the road Krivolak – Pepeliste, said that the health of the citizens comes first, and everything else is running political interests.
“If the epidemic allows this chance, elections should be organized as soon as possible”, replied Sekerinska to a journalist question about the leaders meeting and the date for elections. “At the leaders meeting, we should not bid for a date, but rather decisions should be made that will be in favour of the state and most citizens”, she emphasized.
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VMRO-DPMNE in regards to the date for parliamentary elections so far remains in the same position, for them the health of the citizens is most important, but the leader of the party, Hristijan Mickoski, at a press conference said that they will wait for the views of the leaders meeting on Tuesday with President Stevo Pendarovski and they will come out with their comment.
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President Stevo Pendarovski today had a farewell meeting with German Ambassador Thomas Norbert Gerberich, at which they reaffirmed the position that building friendly relations with Federal Republic of Germany, through a sincere and trustworthy approach, is exceptionally important for our country.
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With a demonstration exercise of the Special Units in the MOI and a moment of silence for fallen police members, as well as with awarding plaques for the diplomatic corps as a sign of gratitude for the successful cooperation and continuous support in dealing and overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 coronavirus and to members of the Ministry of Interior for the long years of successful work, today, May 7, the “Gjorce Petrov” Police Center in Skopje marked Macedonian Police Day.
Plaques were awarded to the OSCE Mission, the EU Delegation and embassies of Croatia, PR China, the US, Hungary, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, as well as to several MOI employees.
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Tomorrow a meeting of the Headquarters in the Government will be held, where the Commission for Infectious Diseases will also be included. At the meeting there will be discussion as to how the ban on movement will continue, in particular, the curfew hours
during the weekend. There will be a meeting on Saturday, and then we will know what the measures on relaxing the measures from Monday will be like, said Filipce at today’s press conference.
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Two new performances have been scheduled today from the program “Culture in a time of Coronavirus”. At 7.00 pm, the residents of the surrounding buildings in Skopje Sever will have the opportunity to watch the theatre play “WESTSIDE CONCEPT”, of the WESTSIDE Theatre. While at 8.30pm, АМОN MRA BAND will have a concert in the park in Kisela Voda.
Dehran Muratov
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
