English
In the past period our country was exposed to a campaign from the opposition that there is an agreement to accept migrants from the United Kingdom – something that was denied yesterday by British diplomacy, said Prime Minister and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski in a statement today. Mickoski made the statement a day after British Ambassador to Macedonia Matthew Lawson categorically denied the claims the SDSM party has been spreading for months.
With this, the entire construction that the opposition SDSM and its leader Venko Filipce have been trying to impose on the public for months has collapsed. This is a deeply destructive and potentially dangerous model of behavior by Venko Filipce. The thesis was spread that behind the strategic partnership agreement between Macedonia and the United Kingdom there is another “secret agreement”. The impression was created persistently and without a shred of restrain, that the Government was hiding something from its citizens. Fears were sown that Macedonia would become a camp for migrants. This thesis was repeated day after day. It was repeated at press conferences. It was repeated in statements. It was repeated as if it were a fact. They were shouting and announcing protests. Yesterday we received a clear and unambiguous answer from the British diplomacy and Ambassador Matthew Lawson who publicly and unequivocally said that such an agreement does not exist and never has existed. There is no agreement. There are no negotiations. There are no centers for migrants. The facts are clear, Mickoski said.
The problem, Mickoski says, is much bigger than this particular issue, because, as he emphasized, this is not an isolated case.
This is a deeply destructive and potentially dangerous pattern of behavior by Venko Filipce. We see the same pattern repeating itself. First, a sensationalist narrative is fabricated, then a media panic is created, and when the facts expose the story, the topic simply disappears. No apology. No responsibility. They just move on to the next fabrication. We have seen this in other cases. We saw it when panic was created that our institutions were allegedly silent about the seized drugs in Serbia. There was talk of a cover-up and scandal even before the facts were established. Then it turned out that the institutions had been working on the case from the very beginning. We also saw it when apocalyptic figures were put forward about the fires and it was claimed that the country was destroyed. The impression was spread that Macedonia was in a catastrophic state. Then it turned out that the figures were much different. We saw it when it was claimed that there were no funds for pensions and that the Government had not provided finances for pensioners, said Mickoski,
SDSM, he says, is persistent in its destructive model of kidnapping Macedonia in order to save itself.
SDSM today has been turned into a pale copy of what it once was and a factory for creating political panic. And I know that they will not apologize, I know that they will continue as before. It is easiest for me to push the Napoleonic position that says “never interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake”, but we need a serious and strong opposition, not this privatized, business oriented opposition with problems with morality and keeping their word, said Mickoski.