The SDSM party rejected the advice from VMRO-DPMNE to cancel the New Year decorations and divert the funds toward purchasing computers for poor families who can’t afford to allow their children to attend online classes. The not insignificant sum of 200,000 EUR that would be spent in the capital Skopje alone could go a long way toward helping such families, but SDSM is having none of it.

Of course we will reduce the spending on this item. But we won’t allow the cities to be enveloped in darkness. The citizens need a ray of light in this difficult time, SDSM said in a press release.

The VMRO-DPMNE group in the Skopje city council pointed to the lavish parties that Mayor Petre Silegov from SDSM threw in his term, saying that he is more interested in putting up a facade than in running the city.