The PM's brother-in-law at the parliament podium: Apasiev raises companies and a Strumica tender, Mickoski says - say it outside, then see you in court

Wednesday's MPs' questions in parliament were supposed to be about holding the government to account. They ended with "coward", "heretic" and "snob". Amid the insults, though, one question remained that deserves a better answer than a threat to sue: are the businesses of the prime minister's relatives growing along with his power?

Levica leader Dimitar Apasiev took the podium with a photograph of Hristijan Mickoski standing next to his brother-in-law (the husband of his wife's sister) Jordančo Janev - Dano. According to Apasiev, Janev is linked to at least six companies, four in Macedonia and two in Bulgaria, among them Dano Trans, Interplast Group, Shalom Food Group, Shalom Delivery and D-Digital Konto, some of which were founded after the change of government in 2024. For Janev's cousin, Dončo Karastoev, Apasiev presented a network of nine more companies, and two companies linked to them, he claims, are registered at a single address in Petrich.

The Strumica lunch. The most concrete part of the allegations concerns a contract for a ceremonial lunch for 250 guests to mark the feast of the Fifteen Holy Hieromartyrs of Tiberiopolis. According to Apasiev, it was the Strumica municipality's first tender under new mayor Petar Jankov - and it went to a company linked to Janev, who was at the same time godfather and patron of the celebration. Apasiev also mentioned donations to VMRO-DPMNE: around 20,000 euros from Janev since 2019, plus 5,000 and 2,500 euros from two other people he tied to the same business network.

Mickoski did not deny the family connection. He argued that Janev has run his own business for more than 25 years, that he has held a Bulgarian passport since 2003, not 2017, and that there is nothing illegal about someone owning companies or working in Bulgaria. On the donations, he said the party has thousands of members, supporters and donors. He then challenged Apasiev to repeat all of it at a press conference, without parliamentary immunity, "so we can see each other in court" - and moved on to the hotels, the shopping trips to Thessaloniki and the lifestyle of the Levica leader.

Apasiev hit back with the prime minister's watches and with photos of Janev alongside former prime minister Zoran Zaev, promising new documents. A promise of documents proves nothing on its own. But neither is "sue me" an answer to the question of whether a municipality handed its first tender to a relative of the prime minister.

Who is going to check? Whether Apasiev's claims are true or not is for an institution to establish, not for the applause of the majority or the opposition. The State Commission for the Prevention of Corruption and the State Audit Office exist precisely for questions like these - tenders, donations, conflicts of interest. Will either of them open the files on the Strumica lunch? Or will this showdown too end up as nothing more than footage in the parliament channel's archive?