We can’t talk about elections while we have new patients in the triple digits, it’s madness, said opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski during his TV21 interview. The ruling SDSM party continues to demand elections on July 5, even as Macedonia has by far the worst coronavirus statistics for the entire epidemic so far.

They keep at it like a broken record, “July 5 and that’s final”. That means the campaign should start in 10 days, while we have more than a 100 infected each day. We don’t have a head of the OSCE mission, no long-term election observers, it’s unclear whether any observers will be able to come. This is not a good direction we are on. Who will recognize those elections without monitoring, with a violation of all deadlines provided in the electoral code. Are they going to send police squadrons to arrest me again, is that under the electoral rules? What will we do if people die because of this? For me, a human life has no price, Mickoski said.

European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi recently called on Macedonia to make sure that all parties are allowed to campaign and present their positions before the vote takes place. SDSM has been campaigning like crazy over the past weeks, but is now reaping the consequences, as dozens of high level SDSM officials are infected or in quarantine after attending pre-election events and campaign meetings. SDSM has apparently determined that a very low turnout “corona election” is their best chance for a good result.