English
VMRO-DPMNE Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Nikoloski called on Venko Filipce to resign as SDSM leader after their devastating defeat in the local elections.
Macedonia is painted red. VMRO-DPMNE has by far the largest victory. In the second round we expect another victory and much work to follow. SDSM leader Venko Filipe should resign, Nikoloski said, adding that in the coming period SDSM will deal with their own internal affairs.
Regarding the race in the capital Skopje, where the populist Levica party candidate Amer Mecinovic made it into the runoff against Orce Gjorgjievski from VMRO-DPMNE (who won almost as many votes as his four main opponents combined), Nikoloski noted the radical positions that Levica holds. “We are partners with the United States and NATO and that is one of the reasons why we are moving ahead”, Nikoloski said, pointing to Levica’s anti-Western rhetoric.
In another runoff race in Skopje, in the Karpos municipality, where VMRO candidate Sotir Lukrovski leads ahead of incumbent Mayor Stevce Jakimovski, Nikoloski reminded the public that Jakimovski is on the US black list for corruption and has a first-instance sentence for corruption. “I’m sure that the voters will not support a man who has already been sentenced for crimes, is on the US black list – again because of crime and corruption, and who has devastated the municipality of Karpos, particularly its urban areas”, Nikoloski added.
