VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that Macedonia can’t move forward if our pride is broken. In an interview with Press24, the opposition leader said that “Macedonia has not endured such dismanling, and the last three years brought nothing but defeats, which we can only feel ashamed of – you can’t go forward if your spine is broken”.

Mickoski also says that the elections on April 12 will be fought on the issue of corruption, not the name issue, but that “VMRO-DPMNE is the only serious political option that has proposed a clear way to alter the difficult reality Zoran Zaev imposed on us”.

There is no force that can make us say we are something other than what we really are – Macedonians from Macedonia, Mickoski told Press24.

Mickoski added that fighting corruption will be a priority for the new, VMRO led Governmen, and for this he said Macedonia needs a proper law governing the work of the state prosecutors.

Otherwise we would only have a continuation of the legalized crime perpetrated by the Special Prosecutor’s Office. I don’t want to be a Prime Minister who, like Zaev, will know what the court verdict will be in advance. I will not allow my associates to be a protected caste which will be above the laws. We are preparing a strategy to fight crime and what will be the most comprehensive action against the criminals so far. We will present some of our plans in the coming month, Mickoski said.

Regarding the law on state prosecutors that was proposed by Zave’s SDSM party, Mickoski said that it violates the Constitution and will simply help protect the criminals.

It they were honest they would admit that the main purpose of this law is to pardon Zaev. They still want a prosecutor like Vilma Ruskoska who would bring the charges Zaev tells her to bring and a judge like Kacarska who will deliver on the verdicts he wants. The proposed law would continue to undermine our judiciary and it will not pass, Mickoski said.
The deadilne to adopt a new law on state prosecutors is February 11, after which the Parliament will dissolve. Not adopting a law might endanger Macedonia’s chances of opening EU accession talks.