North Macedonia’s Health Minister Urged to Resign Over Hospital Inferno

Opposition parties, government critics and some medical doctors have called for the resignation of North Macedonia's Health Minister, Venko Filipce, over the fire that took 14 lives in Tetovo's COVID-19 modular hospital earlier this week.

Filipce on Thursday promised an independent investigation into the blaze but said he would think about possible resignation only after the investigation yields results.

"Filipce has no answers to any of the questions that the public is interested in, but is certain about one thing - that he will not resign," the spokesperson of the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, Dimce Arsovski, said.

Accusing the Health Minister, but also the entire Social Democrat-led government of incompetence, he asked for immediate resignations.

"Unbiased and objective investigation [into the causes of the fire] is unfortunately impossible without a resignation from [Prime Minister] Zoran Zaev and Venko Filipce, who could both influence the inquiry," Arsovski said on Thursday after Filipce's public appearance.

On Thursday, Filipce told reporters that he would concider resigning only after the investigation is over.

"I am not running from responsibility but will … wait for the investigation to finish. Having in mind that there is a need to manage some of the patients, to conclude the autopsies' findings and so forth, after the conclusion of the investigation, I will make a decision on whether to tender my resignation," Filipce said.

The minister recalled an additional guarantee that the investigation will be objective - the government has already accepted an offer of help from NATO allies in investigating the causes of the fire who will send experts to aid local investigators.

The modular hospital in...

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