In October, Filipche unveiled the party’s new strategy, Congress, but he also took aim at the government after 30 days in power. Simultaneously, he urged Mickoski to bring the Hungary loan bill before the Parliament as soon as possible to unravel the problems concealed by the nation’s excessive debt.

We made a mistake when we changed the Criminal Code, as SDSM leader Venko Filipce acknowledged, causing cases involving official abuses to become statute barred. As a result, we called on Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski to hold public discussions on the new code, which is modeled after the German criminal code.After 30 days in office, Filipce, the new president of the opposition Social Democratic Party, harshly criticized the government while also announcing the party’s new October strategy in his first press conference as president. In doing so, he summoned Mickoski to present the Hungarian credit law before the Assembly as soon as possible in order to resolve the uncertainties and problems that lie behind such national borrowing.
Prime Minister Mickoski responded by saying that a new criminal code would be implemented, but in accordance with European norms. He told him about the loan from Hungary that the government is transparent about how that money will be spent and that SDSM is afraid that they will also lose the local elections
It is not respectable to keep your eyes and ears closed.

According to Filipce, a new criminal code was being written beginning in 2017—during the tenure of Renata Deskovska as Minister of Justice.

We must be honest and admit that we made a mistake with the changes to the Criminal Code. I believe that we should continue on the path of reforms in the judiciary with the support of the international community. A new criminal code has been prepared, which was launched in 2017 by Minister Renata Deskovska. He is finished, finished. The new criminal code was made in full coordination with international institutions following the criminal code of Germany, and I believe that it should be publicly debated as soon as possible, experts should review it, give their opinion, the expert community should be involved and by consensus pass a new criminal code as appropriate. It is not enough to say that we were wrong to pass such a law. Here, we are going one step further, to correct that mistake in this way – Filipche said.

The leader of the SDSM said that they received their message not only from the electorate during the elections but also from the responses of both the general public and the expert community when a journalist questioned them about why they had pushed through the Criminal Code changes with such force, in spite of the strong public backlash and how they came to realize they were wrong.He did not speak with Prime Minister Mickoski or the VMRO-DPMNE parliamentary group about the new Criminal Code. Having said that, the proposal to open up public discussion on the law is the first stage, and the answer will determine what happens next.

Mickoski instructed the SDSM to act as a constructive opposition, refrain from acting in the manner of a neighborhood association, and spread these ideas that they do not understand.