Foundation Open Society

Macedonian political parties will have a harder time keeping their finances out of the public eye if the country, as planned, soon adopts a new law on public information access that would get rid of many legal loopholes allowing parties to keep such data hidden.

A group of NGOs in Macedonia has given a recently formed movement, Stop Operation Soros, SOS, a week to apologise or face legal charges over its claims that local NGOs are receiving money from abroad to destabilise the country.

VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski's New Year "mega interview" for the news portal Republika - in which he accused the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia, FOOM, of plotting to topple his government in the name of "foreign interests", naming US Billionaire George Soros as the alleged mastermind - has heated up Macedonia's media and social networks.

The Public Revenue Office, UJP confirmed on Tuesday that it is preparing to send financial inspectors to the Foundation Open Society - Macedonia and to 20 other NGOs, but dismissed allegations that its actions were motivated by the ruling party threat to combat internationally-funded civil sector groups that allegedly work for foreign interests.

The election monitoring coalition We Decide! (Nie Odlucuvame!), which is running an SOS hotline for reporting electoral irregularities and offers legal help to voters, warned at a press conference on Tuesday that the authorities have failed to fully clean up the electoral roll.