Discussing the Bechtel highway scandal, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski blamed the Government for the widespread perception of corruption in the 1.3 billion EUR deal. He asked why wasn’t the Government able to organize an open competition for the bid, and to secure EU funding for the major project.

The options are to call the deal off and pay huge penalties, or to make it better. As an engineer, I’m particularly concerned and I will be engaged in this, said Mickoski, who would have to handle the fallout of the scandal if he becomes Prime Minister next year.

He pointed to examples of renegotiations of similar deals, such as in Romania, where the price tag went down by 30 percent. “If the company wants us to be friends and if our strategic partners want to be true strategic partners, they will help us sit down and renegotiate it in the mutual interest”, Mickoski added.

The deal was negotiated by officials of the notoriously corrupt DUI party.