Levica: Constitutional Court refuses to review paid advertising — one day later judges get higher salaries back

SKOPJE, September 26 — The Constitutional Court has ruled that Levica is not entitled even to a constitutional review of discriminatory provisions that prevent it from accessing paid political advertising; immediately after this, the authorities began restoring higher salaries to the constitutional judges. Levica calls this a “reward for a job well done”, as 24 Info reports.

On June 17 the Constitutional Court annulled the provisions that had lowered the salary coefficients of its president and judges: the president’s coefficient returns from 2.81 to 3.08, that of the judges from 2.60 to 2.85 — from October 1 they will again have higher coefficients than other elected and appointed officials.

When the state lowered officials’ coefficients, this applied to everyone — MPs, ministers, mayors. Only the constitutional judges found a “legal construction” to exempt themselves, referring to their constitutional position and independence, Levica’s reaction says.

On September 24 the decision reached the parliamentary Commission for election and appointment matters, where DPMNE and SDSM members voted unanimously to restore the higher coefficients.

According to Levica, the salary decision sat in Parliament for months without being implemented; only one day after the same Court decided not to initiate proceedings on Levica’s initiative — leaving in force the model that excludes Levica from paid political advertising during elections — did the file suddenly move.

Levica says that with this vote the legal dispute is not over and signals the road to Strasbourg, to the European Court of Human Rights.

These are Levica’s claims in a party statement, which presents the salary restoration as a “reward for services” to the government; the Constitutional Court and the parliamentary majority have presented the decision as a matter of judicial independence.