The moment in which VMRO-DPMNE pulls out the materials from the website about an alleged agreement between SDSM-DUI and the ex-prime minister and fugitive from justice, Nikola Gruevski, trying to make a theater with exclusive information, is a ridiculous move because the opposition party already in 2019 and 2020 presented similar materials, said the Vice Prime Minister for European Affairs, Bojan Maricic, in an interview for "360 degrees" on MRT 1.

According to Maricić, the theater made by VMRO-DPMNE around this case cannot cover their long-term participation in conversations on this topic, and the materials submitted by the vice-president of VMRO-DPMNE, Aleksandar Nikoloski, with some allegations that the amendments to the Criminal Code are peculiar agreement between Gruevski and the government is ridiculous because anyone can sit down and write that.

"There are numerous such materials, anyone can do it, it is a kind of analysis of parts of the Criminal Code with proposals and such similar materials were presented by VMRO-DPMNE back in 2019 or 2020 when the Law on Public Prosecution was discussed. "Yesterday we heard from Mickoski that they retired the Special Public Prosecutor's Office (SPO), you remember that then we had difficult discussions with them about that Law and the discussion about the Criminal Code was then opened by them", says Maricic.

The Vice Prime Minister says that he personally does not know from whom the email was sent, but adds that he is sure that inside VMRO-DPMNE there are many emails from Nikola Gruevski. The vice-prime minister also said that this party lacks consistency in explaining their role in the whole process, that is, that they are exposing themselves that their goal was impunity, and the biggest proof of that is Mickoski's speech yesterday, in which for the first time a senior representative from VMRO-DPMNE publicly said that the party's goal was to retire the Special Public Prosecutor's Office (SPO).

On the journalist's remark that with the changes in the Criminal Code that were adopted, the ruling majority retired the SPO, Maricic says that he does not agree with this statement because, according to him, they fought for these cases to continue living in the court system with the Law of 2020 year.

"We put a lot of effort into that law. Each subject should be considered. The purpose of our amendments that have been adopted is to strengthen the instruments for the confiscation of illegally acquired property, which has been a big problem in some of the cases of the SPO, and on the other hand, to put the amount of fines on a reasonable and European level," he said. Maricic.

The Deputy Prime Minister assures that the only reason why the changes were made is to strengthen the instruments of confiscation, and that it is up to the public to decide whether or not to believe in their explanations.

"We cannot change the statement just because someone else has doubts." From the first moment until today, the intention is the same, the changes were made in the Ministry of Justice, they were taken and discussed with some of the experts. There is a permanent group on the Criminal Code that has been working for several years in the Ministry and is preparing a new code. "I think it is logical that in the coming period they will offer a completely new Criminal Code, not only with these changes, because there are things that need to be harmonized," said Maricic.

When asked if there is an axis of cooperation between SDSM, DUI and Nikola Gruevski, as the opposition accuses, Maricic says that such a thing does not exist and that the only thing VMRO-DPMNE wants to do with these accusations is to try to cover up the internal conflict that they have the current and former president of the party.

"It seems to me that the conflict is serious, we have known for a long time that there is a division in VMRO-DPMNE. We have no doubt that there are conflicts in VMRO-DPMNE on several grounds. One is a struggle for supremacy, and on the other hand, there are several lines on which they differ, one of which is about the constitutional amendments," said the Vice Prime Minister for European Affairs.

Earlier in the same show, the vice president of VMRO-DPMNE, Aleksandar Nikoloski, shared materials that he claims are part of a secret communication between the former president of VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski, and the leader of DUI, Ali Ahmeti, the president of the Assembly, Talat Xhaferi. and another person. According to the vice-president of VMRO-DPMNE, the proposed amendments to the Criminal Code, which correspond to what was proposed by the Government and expressly adopted by the Parliament, are on the agenda.