In an interview with 360 Degrees, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski predicted that his party will win with up to 60 seats in Parliament, on the verge of forming a Government outright.

I’m convinced and I assure the citizens that the next Government will be formed by VMRO-DPMNE, with me as mandate holder. This will usher the historically most reformist period in Macedonia. We have a serious program for a serious transformation of Macedonia. I’m personally fully prepared, and the party is well primed and highly motivated for a historic victory, following the win at the local elections, Mickoski said.

According to the opposition leader, polls conducted in November put VMRO at between 51 and 54 seats, against 26 to 29 for SDSM. SDSM’s main partner DUI and the opposition Albanian parties will share between 27 and 28 seats, depending on how they position themselves with possible pre-election coalitions. And finally, two populist parties that split with SDSM following the Colored Revolution, Levica and Maksim Dimitrievski’s party, would share 12 seats.

Another important issue for the elections will be whether VMRO-DPMNE will participate in the technical Government that should organize the elections. Mickoski said that VMRO should nominate candidates, who will make sure that the abuse of power by SDSM and DUI for pre-election purposes is reduced, but at the same time the party should not vote for this Government – because of deep disagreement with the choice of its leader – Talat Xhaferi from DUI.

The nomination of Xhaferi for interim Prime Minister is against the Constitution and against the law. He was not proposed by the biggest party in Parliament, as the law provides, Mickoski said, adding that the party will offer the abolition of this model of technical Governments in the future.

Asked whether the party would again support university professor Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova for President, even though she lost in 2021 and does not come from the party, Mickoski said that she is an exceptional law expert, a patriot who loves her country and part of the large VMRO-DPMNE family. He also broadly agreed with the proposed line-up of people who will lead the VMRO lists in the 6 districts – Mickoski in the first district, Vladimir Misajlovski as head of the list of the 2nd district, Dragan Kovacki in the 3rd, Aleksandar Nikoloski in the 4th district, Toni Konjanovski or Gordana Siljanovska in the fifth and Gordana Dimitrieska – Kocoska in the 6th district.