Crvena Mladina: Students harmed by €6.5 million due to unchanged subsidy
According to Maria Vancheva, the Law on the Subsidized Student Meal provides for annual inflation adjustment which was not applied in three consecutive budgets, harming students by about €6.5 million.
At a press conference held on 17 August 2026, the Secretary General of Crvena Mladina, Maria Vancheva, accused that DPMNE for three years has not applied the statutory adjustment of the subsidized student meal to inflation, after which students were harmed by about €6.5 million.
Vancheva emphasized that this is a specific legal obligation: the Law on the Subsidized Student Meal provides for an increase of the amount in accordance with the annual inflation rate before the adoption of the Budget for the following year. Despite three annual budgets being adopted, the amount of the subsidized meal remained unchanged.
Legal context and calculation
In sharp remarks, Vancheva stressed that the failure to respect the legal clause shows what priorities the government has. "Proof that DPMNE does not care for the people, but only for its voter base, is that even the minimal rights that by law belong to students, DPMNE unlawfully withholds from them. Namely, students have been unlawfully deprived of about €6.5 million!"
She further specified the harm per student, claiming that keeping the same amount means a real monthly shortfall. "Although three annual budgets have passed, the meager amount for the subsidized student meal remained the same! In other words, for three years the authorities have deprived each student of 650 denars per month that were legally due to them."
Besides the financial effect, Crvena Mladina raised the question of the government's political priorities at a time when living costs are rising. "This is proof that a geritocracy rules in Macedonia! DPMNE's orientation toward their voter base keeps both pensioners and students hostage in different ways," Vancheva said.
The claims from Crvena Mladina are expected to provoke public debate, after organizations and the opposition called for consistent respect of legal provisions; by the end of the press conference no response from the competent authorities had been announced.
Photo: press material from the event
