Gashi responds to Kostadinovski: Everyone should see in their own backyard how it works

Macedonia

Express newspaper

17/03/2026 10:49

"Everyone should take care of the institution they lead, not look into the field of others," said the Speaker of the Assembly, Afrim Gashi, responding to the President of the Constitutional Court, Darko Kostadinovski, who criticized the legislature for not implementing the obligations required by the Constitutional Court.

Regarding the fact that the deadlines set by the Constitution were not respected for some laws, Gashi said that this is not the fault of the Assembly, because the changes to the laws mentioned by Kostadinovski are made by the ministries in charge of this. “Every coordination has representatives of the Government and when we have such a case, we always ask how far the law is,” Gashi added.

"Everyone should take care of the institution they lead, not look at the areas of others. We should care more about the institutions we lead than see what the other is doing. As a politician, I do not enter into conflict with other institutions, but when we see how the institution we lead functions, it functions better. I see how it functions and from there I am guided in the direction of the Assembly. Without an opinion from the Government, we cannot take certain steps," said Afrim Gashi, Speaker of the Assembly.

In an interview for the podcast "Where is the Money?", Kostadinovski criticized the Assembly for not implementing the decisions of the Constitutional Court. For this, he emphasized that he will no longer be tolerant of the legislature, which he believes is a constitutionally undisciplined body.

"I am not sure that I will be so constructive towards the legislature anymore. At the last annual conference I said, the honeymoon for the Assembly is over. We gave the Assembly 3 chances. First, the law on electronic communications, we set a deadline of 2-3 months, it did not respect our decision. We gave it a deadline of 10 months for the amendments to the Criminal Code, so that unpredictable consequences do not occur. Is this respect for the Constitutional Court? I often say that the Assembly is an undisciplined constitutional body", said Darko Kostadinovski, President of the Constitutional Court.

Last year, Kostadinovski warned several times and set a deadline for the Assembly to approve the amendments to the Criminal Code, but the legislature did not respect the set deadlines, which were also requested by the international community.