Former Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki tells President Stevo Pendarovski that his role is to serve as an inspiration to the country, and not further demoralize the yong students, entrepreneurs, farmers… Milososki called Pendarovski out after the President told the young of Macedonia that, if he weren’t elected President, he would leave the country as well.

As a head of state your job is to encourage and motivate the nation, in good times and in bad and not just to sit listlessly on the throne counting on the salary provided by the plebs and by the added perks of office. Imagine if President Gligorov told us in 1994, during the one-sided Greek embargo, when people would wait in lines to buy 5 liters of gas and the essential medicine, that he would’ve packed up and left Macedonia rather than endure such problems? Imagine if President Trajkovski told the nation, as soldiers and policemen and civilians were being killed in 2001, that he’s thinking about leaving the country? Or if President Crvenkovski said that he would move out of Macedonia after the illegal Greek veto of our NATO membership in 2008? And, especially try to imagine the staged protests, burnt offices and assaulted Government institutions we’d get if President Ivanov said that he would leave the country during the 2015 migrant crisis, if he didn’t have a solid presidential salary and a security detail?, Milososki told Pendarovski in a social media comment.

Pendarovski’s statement, given during, ironically, a youth conference in Novi Sad meant to find ways to keep the young people in the Balkan states, caused widespread criticism. This especially considering that the ruling SDSM party, including Pendarovski and outgoing Prime Minister Zaev, kept promising the parents and grandparents of Macedonia that they will not only stop the migration of their young, but will reverse it and bring those that already left back home.