“It’s not a tragedy, it’s a crime,” “They were not victims of a fire, they were victims of the system,” “Closed eyes, open graves,” read some of the signs carried by the relatives and friends of the young victims of Kočani fire alongside their photographs, who lead the protest “March of the Angels” protest on May 17.
Families and citizens marched through the center of Kočani on Saturday afternoon from the Park of the Revolution to the buildings of the court and public prosecutors’ offices. They demanded impartial justice and better conditions for medical treatment of the survivors.
The march marked the two months of the disaster in the improvised discotheque Pulse, which claimed 62 lives, and left over more people 155 injured. About 120 young people are still being treated in the underfunded and understaffed local hospital, while 11 are being treated abroad.
Estimates of number of participants in the protest range around five thousand, which included mainly local citizens, who were joined by hundreds from Skopje and other places, who came to Kočani express solidarity and support for the demands.
This was the sixth “March of the Angels”, weeky public gatherings of the families of Kočani victims.
Во #Кочани во тек е шестиот Марш на ангелите за помош на смесјтвата на жртвите и повредените во пожарот во дискотеката Пулс https://t.co/pTGouUIDHx
— META.mk (@meta_agency) May 17, 2025
At the end of April, they also organized such a march in the capital Skopje, which included a protest in front of Public Prosecutors’ Office and the Parliament. That march ended with an audience at office of the Minister of Interior Panče Toškovski, where some of the friends and relatives of the victims also voiced their demands for justice in the case.
