Mickoski Won't Drop the Merger of the Security and Intelligence Agencies: His Party Was a Victim of the Services, So Now There'll Be One Bigger Service

The government will not back down from merging the National Security Agency (ANB) and the Intelligence Agency. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski confirmed this during MPs' question time, answering SDSM lawmaker Mitko Trajčuleski, who called for the reform to be withdrawn, warning of an excessive concentration of security power and recalling the illegal wiretapping scandal.

Mickoski promised a public debate, a transparent process and stronger parliamentary oversight of the future merged agency. The reason for the reform, he said, is partly personal: "When we were in opposition we were victims of those services, and there are court cases about it." He dismissed fears of new wiretapping, arguing that the Operational-Technical Agency exists, so any surveillance outside the law would be abuse with its own accountability. The merger is part of VMRO-DPMNE's election platform, modelled, he said, on the US and Croatia.

An argument that runs in circles

There's an awkward logic here. The prime minister says his party was a victim of powerful services - so the answer is an even more powerful service, merged under one roof. The guarantee it won't be abused is the Operational-Technical Agency and "accountability mechanisms". But when the wiretapping was happening, the laws and institutions existed on paper too. The question isn't whether there will be oversight, but whether a parliament where the government holds the majority will really control the agency that same government is creating.

Borders and "free passes"

Trajčuleski also raised border control. He listed the cases of Artan Grubi, Prparim Bajrami and Blerim Ramadani, the seizure of five tonnes of drugs in Serbia, and Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi's trip to a wedding in Kosovo. He also mentioned the case of Iva Mihajlova, about whom the Interior Ministry said there was no recorded exit from Macedonia and no legal entry into Bulgaria, even though it was reported publicly that she is there. "Political power, connections and influence cannot be a free pass to escape justice," he said.

During the session, the prime minister also defended his support for antimony mining in Luke near Kriva Palanka, citing the position of the SDSM mayor there, and pointed at previous governments over the disputed concessions. He called the accusations of crime untrue and politically motivated.

Services stay, governments change. Who will be watching the merged agency when someone else is running it?