On the issue of high energy prices, which are devastating the Macedonian economy, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski reminded the public that until 2017 we paid the least for electricity in the region. Mickoski managed the state owned ELEM energy company until 2017.

Eurostat shows that in the first half of 2022 Macedonian businesses pay by far the highest prices for electricity. And five years back, in 2017, the businesses paid the least in the entire region. Now the Macedonian economy and our companies are losing their competitive edge and many will be shut down, which will increase unemployment, Mickoski said in his Republika interview.

He added that his party will continue to oppose the planned loan of 100 million EUR for the public energy sector, because of the strings that come attached to it – the mandate to close REK Bitola and TEC Oslomej – Macedonia’s only coal fired plants that produce the bulk of the domestic energy.