Macedonia Minister Survives No-Confidence Vote

Only 16 legislators in the 120 seat parliament supported the motion while 65, mainly from the main ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party, voted against.

"We did not expect you to support the motion, but we achieved our goal - the Macedonian public heard our credible criticism," Vlado Buckovski from the biggest opposition party, the Social Democrats, SDSM, said during the 12 hour debate.

The Social Democrats hold Manevski responsible for failing to keep politics away from influencing the work of the judicial system, among other complaints.

The motion for a vote of no confidence was submitted on February 26, due to "nepotism in the judiciary, irregularities in the ministry's financial operations, the scandal of usurped state-owned land, extremely poor conditions in Macedonian prisons and political pressure on judges".

As a member of the country’s Judicial Council, the body that elects and appoints judges, the SDSM claims that Manevski has significantly jeopardised the independence of the judiciary. SDSM points to the recent poll conducted by the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, which shows that 43 percent of judges in Macedonia have said they have faced political pressure.

They also blame Manevski for several scandals in the judicial sector. They cite the incident last year in which the opposition presented a document from the state pension fund claiming that Manevski had been unlawfully receiving both a state pension as a retiree and a minister’s salary.

Manevski rejected the no-confidence motion as unfounded. He referred to the reforms he has inititated as positive, and insisted that this has led to progress in judicial independence, the increased efficiency of courts and the establishment of new institutions.