In an interview with the Belgrade daily Politika, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski says that the Zoran Zaev Government has pushed Macedonia into the abyss over the past three years, with the Zaev family and their financial dealings the only beneficiaries of the abandonment of Macedonia’s national interests.

Macedonia badly needs renewal. The road taken by outgoing Prime Minister Zoran Zaev leads us nowhere. The citizens understand that, the leaders of the political parties also understand that, and it is clear to our partners in the international community as well. We called for the early elections to be held much sooner, while Zaev came up with all sorts of excuses and wanted to have them in the regular term, in October, as he came face to face with the defeat of his disastrous policies. Had Zaev accepted our proposal Macedonia would’ve been out of the dead end it is in now much sooner. The criminal procurement contracts would have been cut short and those who plunder the country would have faced accountability much sooner. This would’ve improved our chances to open the EU accession talks. But we have a chance to right the ship on April 12th. At the moment the only thing that is important is that we have clean, fair and democratic elections. We need to unite around a country government through the rule of law and where the laws apply equally to all, Mickoski told Politika.

In the interview, Mickoski listed a litany of crimes and abuses perpetrated by Zoran Zaev, which, he says, influenced the EU decision.

You can’t count Zaev’s “not guilty” verdict in a case in which the entire country saw him asking for a bribe as evidence of judicial reform. It’s not a reform if GRECO delivers the worst country report ever and you continue to politicize the police and the security services. It’s not a reform if you influence their outcomes of the public healthcare procurement contracts while prosecutors turn a blind eye to this obvious crime. It’s not a reform to abolish the procurement oversight committee and to push through a law on drugs that benefits your family companies under the procedure meant to be used only for laws linked to EU accession. It’s easy to look for the blame elsewhere, away from yourself. But it is also irresponsible. I’ve always been in favor of locating the blame here, at home. Zaev threw everything on one card. he gambled with our national interests. He lied that he was given guarantees. He never cared about the reforms. And now his approach is defeated. Unfortunately, we are all left to foot the bill. It would be a tragedy if we accepted that France is to blame and the country remained stuck. The only person to profit off of that would be Zaev, whose family companies have increased their revenue to 60 million EUR per year, Mickoski says.

The opposition leader confirmed that parties allied with Zoran Zaev are seeking audience with VMRO-DPMNE, as the poll after poll have shown that the opposition is in the lead ahead of the elections planned for April 12th. But, Mickoski said that VMRO-DPMNE will insist on principles and honesty in the future alignments. He dismissed criticism from Zaev that the opposition would not agree to the proposed law on state prosecutors.

How could we find common ground when he kept nominating Katica Janeva, even after everybody realized that she is neck deep in crime, because she was blindly following Zaev’s orders? Up until the Boki 13 scandal went public, her appointment was Zaev’s red line, Mickoski said.

Regarding the relations with the neighbors, Mickoski told Politika that he expects honesty and mutual respect. He dismissed the Prespa treaty as a bad deal which VMRO-DPMNE did not vote for.

The fate of the Prespa treaty will depend on the elections. If we have a stable two thirds majority in Parliament, including from the smaller ethnic communities, we have an opportunity to take a tep back. If not, we will have a lot of work and reforms, to put Macedonia on the fast track to EU membership. Once we are in, we can rectify the mistakes. There is no treaty in the world which can stop me from being a Macedonian who speaks the Macedonian language and comes from Macedonia. Our concept is to say no to pursuing “antiquization” policies, no to “northernization”, yes to the Macedonian identity in Macedonia, Mickoski says.