A court in Skopje decided today to pre-trial detention for a period of 30 days against the head of the municipal Cleaning Service of Skopje and another official of this service in connection with the continued non-collection of garbage in the city. The two are accused of causing danger to public health and the environment of the capital of North Macedonia.

The situation in Skopje has become unbearable in recent days. In many areas — even downtown — garbage trucks either don’t come through at all or make sporadic collections. As a result, huge volumes of garbage have accumulated almost everywhere, attracting rats and increasing the concern of residents and health authorities.

The responsible municipal agency has so far not given convincing explanations for the reasons for the non-collection. However, workers in the Cleaning Service complain of delays in the payment of their salaries, while they report that a large part of the fleet of garbage trucks has been put out of service due to breakdowns.

The responsibility for cleanliness in the city of Skopje is the municipal cleaning service, which, however, does not give any convincing explanation why the garbage trucks do not circulate in the city and do not collect the garbage.

The Prosecutor’s Office has ordered a preliminary investigation to verify the commission of a possible offense on the part of the Cleaning Service of the Municipality of Skopje and the outgoing mayor of Skopje, Danela ‘Arsofska herself. The latter was elected mayor of Skopje in the last municipal elections of 2021 with the support of the current ruling party VMRO-DPMNE. However, she later came into sharp conflict with the party that supported her, as well as with its leader, Christian Mickoski, who is also the prime minister of North Macedonia. He and VMRO-DPMNE now accuse Arsofska of complete inadequacy and inability to meet its basic obligations to the citizens of Skopje — a city of about 550,000. For her part, Arsofska accuses VMRO-DPMNE and Mickoski himself of systematically obstructing her work, due to which, as she claims, the cleaning service has not been working as it should for over three years.

The citizens of Skopje are outraged by the situation that has arisen due to the huge volumes of garbage throughout the city and report that the capital of the country has turned into a “huge garbage dump”.

The issue has now become a central theme of the election campaign, ahead of the second round of municipal elections, which will be held on Sunday 2 November. In it, in the capital of Skopje, the candidate of VMRO-DPMNE, Orce Giorgijevski, and the candidate of the anti-systemic far-left party “Levica” (Left), Amar Mečinović, will face each other. In the first round of the municipal elections, held on October 19, Orce Giorgievsky received 39.42%, while Amar Mecinovic, who made the surprise move to the second round, collected 13.18%.

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