Macedonia’s former Health Minister Nikola Todorov escaped unhurt after an attacker fired two shots at him in front of the ministry in Skopje, the police said on June 1.

The incident happened one day after the new government was sworn in and Todorov was to hand over the post to his successor from the new Social Democrat-led government.

The attacker was reportedly the grandfather of Tamara Dimovska, a nine-year old girl from Veles, who suffered from spinal deformity and died in February 2015, while waiting for the Health Fund to approve funds for her operation abroad. Todorov was health minister at the time.

Police officers arrested the attacker, identified only as “LjS”, from a village near Veles, and are investigating the case, the police said in the short statement. The attack took place at around 12.00am local time.

According to initial information, Todorov had been greeting reporters at the entrance of the ministry when an attacker pulled a gun and fired two shots. The former minister was unhurt due to the intervention of the security guards, broadcaster Telma reported.

The case of Tamara resulted in public criticism, but Todorov did not resign from the top position in the ministry even though the opposition and NGOs had been asking for his resignation. Many protests were held in support of Tamara after her death.

Tamara's mother Zaklina Dimovska confirmed that her father, Ljupco Stojanovski, was the attacker, but she has condemned the act, according to Nova TV.

A few days ago Todorov returned his mandate as an MP with the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, which is now in opposition, saying he will work as a lawyer. 

Todorov was among the MPs from VMRO-DPMNE who offered to help their opponents from the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), who were attacked during the violent incident in the parliament on April 27 following the election of a new assembly speaker.

Todorov now will be replaced by Arben Taravari from the Alliance for Albanians.

VMRO-DPMNE lawmaker Vlato Gjorcev announced that his fellow MPs would not participate in the work of the parliament on June 1 after Todorov’s shooting.

VMRO-DPMNE leader and ex-Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski blamed the attack, which he said was attempted murder, on the SDSM’s negative campaign against Todorov in the last three years. 

It seems that VMRO has been using the incident and will also use other tactics in future to block the work of the new government and the parliament.

The agenda of the June 1 session included annulation of the external testing of students in primary and secondary schools as well as changes to the electoral code to allow prolongation of mandates of current mayors and local authorities until the new local election, possibly due in mid-October.