English
Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, in an interview with Sitel TV, pointed out that the opposition SDSM party knew exactly who Davor Macura was; documents presented by Mickoski today confirm that the SDSM-led government made a decision in 2023 to enter into a business relationship with the Serbian Alta Bank, which he said reveals their hypocrisy. “The document from 2023—in which the then-coalition partners, SDSM and DUI, entered into what one might loosely call a business relationship with Alta Banka Serbia—or rather, with an individual named Davor Macura—clearly confirms their hypocrisy and double standards regarding past events,” emphasized Prime Minister Mickoski.
SDSM has been accusing VMRO-DPMNE over the permission given to Alta Bank to begin operations in Macedonia a year ago, after the bank’s central branch in Serbia collapsed after the elections there. Prime Minister Mickoski clarified that the document refutes SDSM’s claims and reveals the truth: that the SDSM-led government itself entered into a business deal with Macura and Alta Banka.
“Their argument was that we had personal ties to Davor Macura—who allegedly served as a personal banker to Aleksandar Vučić, and so on—while claiming that they had no knowledge of Macura or Alta Banka. That was their narrative. So, what is this 2023 document—which I presented today and which has appeared in some media outlets? It is a document in which the Government—acting on a proposal by the then-Minister of Finance, during a session chaired by the then-Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski—decided to authorize the State Attorney to represent the Government in a transaction where the Macedonian state divested its own shares to Alta Banka, or rather, to Davor Macura. Whether they were coerced or not is beside the point; it does not diminish the fact that this was a misguided…” “…the claim that this Government has entered into business deals with Matsura and Alta Bank,” emphasized Prime Minister Mickoski.
Prime Minister Mickoski added that, in reality, it was the previous government—whether compelled to do so or otherwise—that entered into business relations with Alta Bank and an individual named Davor Macura, not this Government. “We cannot be involved, because this concerns the shareholders of Stopanska Banka AD Bitola and Alta Bank Serbia; the latter is purchasing shares from private owners, not from the government. Yet, the previous government was fully aware of Mr. Matsura and Alta Bank Serbia,” stated Prime Minister Mickoski.
Regarding whether this Government granted permission, Prime Minister Mickoski clarified that the government has no authority to approve or block debtor-creditor relationships or the sale of a bank between two private parties. “We are the Government, and we remain outside of that process. Provided that legal provisions, rules, and regulations are observed, we can only observe the process from the outside; we are not the party with the authority to grant or withhold permission. It would be entirely inappropriate for the state to interfere in the business decisions of private companies—if that were the case, we would no longer have a market economy,” said Prime Minister Mickoski.