VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski today called on President Stevo Pendarovski to declare a state of emergency immediately. The main parties were divided over what legal option is better – state of emergency or a crisis situation, but Mickoski said that the urgency of the moment requires the President to act now.

I remain convinced that declaring a crisis situation across the whole of Macedonia is the way to go since we will likely be required to declare crisis in parts of the country soon. Never the less, as the Government is lagging with the measures it should take, and the crisis is deepening, I appeal on President Pendarovski to declare a state of emergency, under the Constitution, as soon as possible. Let’s not waste any more precious time. Let the Government stop focusing on its public relations efforts and start working on the ground. We face a serious health, sanitary and economic crisis, Mickoski said.

The opposition leader called on the Government that, as its first step once the state of emergency is declared, it should freeze the payment of all due taxes owed by companies. Companies should also be exempt from paying their bank loans for March and, if they operate in tourism, textile and other hard hit industries – from paying the payroll taxes for March.