The Skopje court ruled in two instances of slander against VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski, and found in his favor.

In one instance, judge Nuhi Rustemi found that the SDSM part slandered Mickoski, when it alleged that he received business preferences from the previous, VMRO-DPMNE led Government. The SDSM allegation was that Mickoski is a “pawn to Nikola Gruevski, whose company was given 33,000 square meters of state owned lands to build hydro plants”, and that Mickoski is the 99 percent owner of the company, instead of “owning just 7 percent”. SDSM could not prove these allegations before the court.

The small populist Integra party and its leader Ljupco Ristovski were also found to have slandered Mickoski. Ristovski claimed that Mickoski personally told him that “he is blackmailed” and can’t join a push to boycott the 2018 name change referendum. Ristovski also could not prove this allegation.