Both leading candidates for Prime Minister criticized the proposal from DUI that the semi-retired politician Naser Ziberi is their candidate for Prime Minister. DUI demands that an ethnic Albanian is named Prime Minister after the elections and has said it will condition its participation in the future Government with this request.

SDSM leader Zoran Zaev is campaigning strongly on the issue. He is in a dispute with DUI, fighting over the Albanian votes. There is also a sense of mutual reinforcement between the two parties on the issue, which has prompted some to call it an engineered dispute which allows Zaev to have a rare issue in which he can present himself as a defender of Macedonian national interests.

I have nothing against the man but his inclusion in a blackmail offer is not appropriate. He can’t reform DUI in 20 days, DUI needs to be in the opposition for four years to reform itself and become a good party, Zaev said.

VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that it is good that DUI is accepting the VMRO proposal of a spitzenkandidat – Mickoski is not running for Parliament on the principle that candidates on the lists will remain in Parliament and will not trade places for executive positions. VMRO proposed the concept to SDSM, but Zaev insisted to run for Parliament, which should give him a level of protection from criminal prosecution in the future.

I hope that now DUI will also propose a program that will be able to draw in voters from all ethnic backgrounds. But the way they kicked off their campaign just leads to additional polarization and that is an approach we reject. It’s not a good concept, Mickoski said.