VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski blamed Zoran Zaev for the economic backsliding and the exploding debt in Macedonia. Mickoski especially pointed to the steep increase in debt compared to GDP growth in the relatively short time Zaev has been in power.

If we compare the years of the past VMRO-DPMNE led Government with the SDSM years, we will see that the difference between public debt growth and GDP growth amounted to positive 1.292 million EUR under VMRO and negative 968 million EUR under SDSM. Between 2007 and 2016, under VMRO, GDP grew by 4.185 million EUR and the public debt grew by 2.893 million. The average annual GDP growth in this period was 3 percent. Meanwhile, between 2018 and 2020, under SDSM, the GDP grew by a total of 0.728 million EUR, and the public debt is up 1.696 million EUR. The average annual GDP growth rate was 0.53 percent. And in case you are not sure where the money the Zaev led Government is borrowing go to – it’s used for crime, corruption and bribing voters, Mickoski said.

Zaev has the coronavirus linked downturn to contend with in the past year, while VMRO-DPMNE faced both the global financial crisis of 2008 and the Greek meltdown in 2009.