Tetovo, 21 August 2023 (MIA) — Tetovo pensioners have been protesting over low pensions every day for three weeks in front of the local Pensioners Association, saying they can barely make ends meet on their retirement checks and demanding increases of 3,500 denars, MIA's Tetovo correspondent reports.

According to pensioner Lenche Simovska, who regularly attends the protests, they were not politically motivated.

"This is not about politics," Simovska told reporters. "It is suffering that has forced us to gather here. We should not be surviving, we should be living our lives. The 3,500 denars won't spoil us. No, we need this money to get by, to be able to fill a prescription, to have enough for a normal life, to get food.

"Minister Trenchevska said the difference between the minimum pension and highest one was 1:4, but the real numbers are 1:7," she continued.

"Trenchevska said that [someone's] 15 years of service could not be compared to someone who had worked for 40 years, which is fine. But we have to be aware that during the transition, many factories closed.

"So those who have had only 15 years of service, it's not their fault that they lost their jobs and were then forced to earn their daily bread working for private businesses that did not pay their [pension] insurance contributions.

"These were not ten people, but thousands of people. Where were the institutions then to ask why those people were not insured?" Simovska asked.

Petre Kostadinovski added that rising food prices weighed heavily on him and his fellow pensioners.

"I worked at Jugokrom, from childhood until retirement," Kostadinovski said.

"I have over 40 years of service. I was middle-class at the time, and now my pension is worth nothing. Mden 1,000 gets you only a few groceries, a loaf of bread and just a few small things. You can't get anything more substantial. Great poverty lies ahead," he said, adding he was disappointed by the price hikes and inflation.

Tetovo Pensioners Asssociation president Selver Memeti said that half of the retired people in the region received low pensions.

"We have to help the pensioners. The UN says that the country should take care of old people, and pensioners belong in this category. Tetovo is a textile city, and we all know they receive the lowest paychecks so they have the lowest retirement checks, too," Memeti said.

"The Tetovo region has some 14,000 pensioners, and 50 percent of them receive low pensions, or pensions below Mden 14,000," he pointed out.

Pensioners demand their pensions be increased by Mden 3,500 each; that the minimum pension be increased to Mden 18,000; and that amendments to the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance be drafted, EU-flagged, and fast-tracked as soon as possible. ssh/mr