SDSM Demands an Investigation Into Alta Banka’s Entry and Asks Questions About 80 Million Euros at the Bitola Bank

Skopje – SDSM spokesperson Bogdanka Kuzeska on November 7 asked the public prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into Alta Banka’s entry onto the Macedonian market and into the roles of Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, Governor Trajko Slaveski and Minister Kochoska. These are claims and demands of the opposition party, not established facts.

According to Kuzeska, Mickoski personally decided on the bank’s entry. As a basis she cited Slaveski’s statement that the strategic entry had to meet the conditions of “political sensitivity”. She claims that the formal owner Davor Macura is part of a network of suspicious financial activity, citing alleged problems in Serbia. Documents on this were not attached in what was relayed.

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SDSM also put a series of questions to the Prime Minister: how many times he spoke with Vucic about Alta Banka, how many times he met Macura, and whether the vault and documentation of Alta Bitola hold 80 million euros in cash or its equivalent. Kuzeska said the bank’s balance sheet shows that amount. That is a question, not a confirmed figure.

The party also asks for the involvement of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, to examine the financial flow, and for the National Bank’s professional services to act independently. “If a breach of the law is established, everyone involved must be held accountable,” is the message, as relayed from her words.

On the other side, on November 5 Mickoski asked the public prosecutor’s office “to look into” SDSM. The opposition, he said, “knowingly undermines the Constitution and the state order, spreading untruths, unrest and creating lies”. He pointed out that the criminal offence of sabotage carries a sentence of at least three years in prison, and that the provision is part of the Criminal Code amended in 2023, while SDSM was in power.

Alta Banka AD Bitola has been under temporary administration by the National Bank since November 1. Clients without payment cards can from November 5 withdraw cash at the counter of the main branch in Bitola, up to 20,000 denars, or about 325 euros at 61.5 (our calculation).

Governor Slaveski earlier stated that transactions to and from Serbia after October 26 were small: about 180,000 euros in outflows and 16,000 euros in inflows, and that they were regular. That is his statement, not a published document.

What is not clear: We found no answer from Mickoski to the November 7 questions, and his November 5 statement precedes SDSM’s press conference. The bank’s balance sheet has not been published, so the figure of 80 million euros cannot be checked. There is also no confirmation from the prosecutor’s office on whether a case has been opened. All persons are presumed innocent until proven otherwise.

MKNews Hub · Macedonia · November 8, 2026