English
VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski addressed his supporters in downtown Skopje, as the party swept the local elections with about 55 projected mayoral seats, including the capital Skopje. Mickoski particularly praised the victories in ethnically mixed areas, such as Kicevo and Brvenica, as well as in Skopje’s urban Karpos district, where VMRO defeated long standing Mayor Jakimovski. But the Prime Minister also acknowledged the drop in turnout, adding that “we also hear your silence”.
We sent a particularly strong message this evening, from our Kicevo. Fatmir Dehari fell. The people united against his mismanagement. We showed what we can do when we are united. We worked with people from all faiths and ethnicites against those who dragged the city down. We can unite for a Macedonia that is home to everyone, Mickoski said.
VMRO ran a well regarded doctor, Aleksandar Jovanovski, who is married to an ethnic Albanian, against Dehari, a former UCK guerrilla commander and close confidant of DUI party leader Ali Ahmeti. A move by Tetovo Mayor Bilal Kasami to endorse Dehari, despite the fact that Kasami received significant support from ethnic Macedonians and from VMRO in the first round, angered Mickoski, who questioned the inter-ethnic coalition he leads. Kasami quickly withdrew his comment and Jovanovski eventually won by over 2,000 votes margin, despite DUI spending significantly on chartering flights to bring Albanian emigrants from Kicevo to vote for Dehari.
The coalition was also tested in Skopje, where majority Albanian areas such as Saraj and Cair saw miniscule turnout, after they elected their own mayors in the first round and had the choice of voting for either the VMRO or Levica candidate for Mayor of the capital. Mickoski acknowledged that VLEN was not able to deliver votes for Gjorgjievski in the second round of the elections, and Levica did not receive significant support from DUI either.
The Prime Minister also strongly condemned the attempt to orchestrate ethnic based voting in Brvenica, a mixed rural municipality east of Tetovo, where a candidate from his VLEN coalition partner urged Albanians from DUI to vote for him, uniting on a national platform, despite the bitter fights VLEN and VMRO fought with DUI elsewhere. This strained the coalition, and Mickoski said that the VLEN candidate will soon be dismissed from his position as head of the municipal inspection service, for trying to “profit on ethnic divisions”.
Another major victory for VMRO, that Mickoski particularly welcomed in his remarks in the VMRO party offices and to the supporters gathered outside, is the one in Karpos, where pharmaceutical executive Sotir Lukrovski defeated long standing Karpos Mayor Stevce Jakimovski, who is best known for switching sides between SDSM, VMRO and DUI to remain afloat. “The time of local bosses, fraudsters who built their careers through petty manipulations and spent decades moving from one camp to the other, is over in Karpos. They thought they will fool the voters with dishonest political games, but it blew in their faces”, said Mickoski.
Mickoski pointed out that today VMRO took several municipalities that had SDSM mayors, including Valandovo, where Pero Kostadinov was considered a rising star in SDSM. With just 20 votes, VMRO won in Krusevo, that has long been considered an SDSM stronghold, as well as in Dojran. The race in Probistip was decided by 30 votes, again in favor of VMRO.
The Prime Minister announced that his first step after the election is to travel to Brvenica and Kicevo to celebrate two of the most important wins in the race, and then to Brussels for meetings with EU officials.
