In his Republika interview, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski accused the ruling DUI party of hiking the rhetoric on nationalist issues in order to divert attention from its constant corruption scandals. The remarks come days after DUI leader Ali Ahmeti attended the opening of an UCK museum near Kumanovo, where a plaque with a map of Greater Albania was displayed.

The DUI party is appealing to national romantic ideas from the past, while it fails to resolve the current problems of the citizens. You know that Gostivar, Kicevo, Struga, Cair.. they’re emptying out. The people are leaving while a few officials from the top of DUI are becoming millionaires. In response, DUI is trying to bring both us and the Albanian opposition to debate them on the issues of national romanticism, where they are the strongest. But I think that the public is aware of these rude manipulations. Every new scandal means that some new plunder is being orchestrated and a few additional buses with young people will leave the country, Mickoski said, discussing the recent opening of a nationalist Albanian museum near Kumanovo where DUI leader Ali Ahmeti unveiled a plaque with the map of Greater Albania. In the recent months VMRO, which dominates SDSM in the polls, has trained its criticism on DUI, seeing it as the dominant partner in the coalition.