Macedonia rejects ex-leader’s request for more security

SKOPJE, Macedonia – Macedonia’s Interior Ministry has rejected a demand by the country’s opposition leader for a beefed-up security detail because of an unspecified threat to his life.

Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski says the six bodyguards currently assigned to former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his family are enough.

Spasovski said Tuesday that Gruevski’s current guards did not report any threats being made against him or his family.

Gruevski’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party said Gruevski requested at least 20 additional bodyguards “because of an assessed high level of threat for his life and personal integrity.”

Former Macedonian prime ministers have the right to a six-member security detail for as long as they were in office.

Gruevski ruled the country from August 2006 to January 2016.