During their TV debate this evening, Mickoski and Zaev touched on the issue of rampant nepotism in public sector hiring, which was even raised by the European Union after it was revealed that dozens of SDSM and DUI party officials have had their children, siblings or spouses hired in public sector companies.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev tried to go after Mickoski on the issue, given that the opposition leader is a part time professor at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in Skopje, where his father also works. In response, Mickoski explained how he worked in the private sector in Italy, advancing to the position of general manager, before returning to Macedonia to offer his knowledge in both the private and the public sector.

Mickoski denied that his father influenced his Master’s degree or PhD, before raising the best known engineering story about Zaev’s own father Pance – the 2012 criminal charge filed against him for illegally hooking up his house to the electric grid in order to avoid paying the electricity bills.

– You lied about me and my father and I suppose it’s something you learned from your father, given the case against him for electricity theft, Mickoski replied.