VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski presented the new strategy of the party in the coming period – Macedonia for all. Mickoski said that the conservative party will extend a hand of cooperation to all, starting with the right and center right, and that it will add colors to its traditional red and black banner to better represent this policy of openness. He added that the unification of the opposition against the Zaev regime is inevitable, and that concrete results in this area will come very soon.

Macedonia for all is the new political strategy of VMRO-DPMNE and the world-view we will act upon. A platform that will unite all honest citizens who love their country and want to build their future here, in Macedonia. We are sharing our vision for a Macedonia that belongs to us all, away from the national and economic devastation we are now experiencing. We will defeat the immorality, kitsch and empty gestures, Mickoski said during the large gathering at the ancient theater in Ohrid, where the party celebrated the 31st anniversary of its founding.

Mickoski painted a dire picture of divisions in Macedonia, and of the large portion of second class citizens – those who are oppressed by the Zaev regime, politically or economically.

Second class citizens are those 500,000 people who live on 150 denars a day, while the politicians drive their modern cars, motorcycles and yachts from one publicly paid lunch to the other. Second class citizens are those who were paying all their lives for healthcare, and now can’t get it, while those who pluder our country each day have priority passes and no problem paying private healthcare. Second class citizens are being harassed by the police for approving a mundane decisions or journalists hounded for writing an article, while Vice Zaev, who is credibly accused of extorting 250,000 EUR, Vasko Kovacevski who was rigging contracts and Oliver Spasovski who was approving passports to mobsters are not even interrogated. Second class citizens are the patriots kept in prison as alleged terrorists while actual killers and ISIS terrorists travel the world with Macedonian passports, Mickoski said.

The opposition leader discussed the new colors of VMRO-DPMNE, which will join the historic red and black, and the yellow – which is the color of the Macedonian flag. The red is the color of patriotism and the struggle for Macedonia, while the black is there to lament the failures of the past, especially of the Zaev regime, which is “leading us to catastrophic national defeats”. The yellow, Mickoski said, represent democracy, the fight for human rights and the “faith in the European dream”. White is for freedom and justice. The party is also adopting the bright red, for the youth and the future of the country. Maroon will be added to represent justice and the rule of law. The orange color, which VMRO used in its successful 2006 political campaign, will be used again, to represent economic dynamism and hard work.

Regarding the proposed unification of the opposition, Mickoski said that it is the only way to break this hybrid regime.

We welcome every civic and intellectual movement or party, including those who bashfully refuse to answer if they are going to join us, and those who are openly inviting us to go to the end, Mickoski said. VMRO-DPMNE already leads a coalition of opposition parties, but relations with Levica, the populist party that won two seats in the Parliament at the last elections, are currently strained, as Levica makes a move for the right wing voters. Mickoski said that new developments in the area of unification of the opposition will be announced shortly.

Speaking before the party supporters at the ancient venue, Mickoski also asked the public to remember all the successes of VMRO in the past, in reforming Macedonia, bringing in foreign investments, building critically needed infrastructure, supporting agriculture…

Some of the people from the previous VMRO Governments are here with us. They worked hard, unlike Zaev, who says that he is out by 16h and uses the weekends for joyrides. We worked until late in the night. VMRO-DPMNE will lead the changes that are needed in Macedonia, until we create the badly needed system of values, of work and honesty, Mickoski said.