Doctor Darko Vasilevski begins a hunger strike in a tent in front of the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje

After 15 days without, as he puts it, any response from the competent institutions, doctor and specialist trainee Darko Vasilevski began today a peaceful protest with a hunger strike, setting up a tent in front of the Dean’s Office of the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje, according to Skopje1’s reporting. In a public post, he thanked all those who have given him support during these days.

This step is the continuation of the case that became public on 19 September, when Vasilevski warned that he would go on hunger strike if the institutions did not react. As Fokus writes, he is a doctor and private specialist trainee who was rejected for the third time in public competition 01/2026 for two full-time posts at the Institute of Medical and Experimental Physiology with Anthropology of the Faculty of Medicine (UKIM) in Skopje.

Vasilevski claims that the competition procedure was non-transparent and that he was discriminated against because of his age. According to the data made public, the notification about the selected candidates was sent to him by email, without reasoning on the selection criteria — a detail which, as Sloboden Pečat stresses, raised serious questions about the transparency of the process.

The Minister of Education and Science, Vesna Janevska, also reacted to the case, saying that the Ministry has no competence over the employment of specialists at the Faculty of Medicine, since it is a matter of employment and not of election to an academic title. As Fokus writes, according to the minister, the State Education Inspectorate will act only if it is a matter of election to a title, while the Labour Inspectorate is competent for employment matters.

With the tent set up in front of the Dean’s Office, Vasilevski says he will continue the hunger strike until the competent institutions give him a concrete answer about his case.