The leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, said in Thursday’s interview with MRTV that he doesn’t consider himself an accomplice in the process that culminated on April 27. According to him, Macedonia is the only NATO country and candidate for EU membership with 35 people charged with terrorism.

If you ask me, the defendants in this case were provoked and acted emotionally. They should not have entered the Parliament, there was violence and I condemn it. I will repeat that hundred times if needed. But they should not be imprisoned for terrorism, he said.

He was asked about a recently leaked tape reportedly including two of the defendants in this case, where one of them says he was ready to kill Zoran Zaev.

I can show you tapes where for over an hour people are plotting about me and my family. Should we release those tapes too, for popular entertainment when 30 to 50 people die on a daily basis?, he replied.