VMRO-DPMNE member of Parliament Ilija Dimovski responded to President Pendarovski’s address before Parliament today by insisting that it only deepened divisions in Macedonia and failing to rise above the interests of his SDSM party.

He apparently feels more comfortable repeating the positions of his party. We heard a lot of empty words and little specifics. We heard his diagnosis, but no proposals how to resolve the issues. The few ideas he did have were presented without consulting the members of Parliament and the opposition which only shows that he failed to outgrow his SDSM party shoes, Dimovski said.

Pendarovski’s speech contained the usual SDSM positions of how Macedonia is “advancing forward after decades of authoritarianism”, but he also acknowledged that the ruling party failed to bring justice, and with the Racket scandal even undermined the judiciary.

Dimovski also condemned Pendarovski for not addressing his earlier comments that Goce Delcev was a Bulgarian – a statement he later backtracked by saying Delcev was pressured to assume Bulgarian identity – in the process Pendarovski angered both sides of the historic dispute. Pendarovski also did not address his recent acknowledgement that, if he weren’t President and were younger, he would probably leave Macedonia like so many other young people, Dimovski observed.