VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski addressed the citizens of Gostivar this evening, and particularly turned to the ethnic Albanians, urging them to rebuff the nationalist rhetoric coming from the DUI party. He accused DUI of outrageous levels of corruption that they are trying to hide behind the facade of Albanian patriotism.

Macedonia faces a serious decision and the elections are not over what party you choose but what kind of future we all choose for ourselves and our families. The main problem in our country is that it is taken away from the people by a group of hundred criminals who rule it. Artan, Bujar and Talat have Macedonia on their silver platter. The reason for this is that SDSM is weak and allows them to do so, paying a huge price to cling on to power a few more days, Mickoski said.

VMRO is involved in a heated exchange with DUI, whose leader and former terrorist commander Ali Ahmeti personally threatened Mickoski and lead a large crowd of supproters in chants supporting his UCK paramilitary group on the Skopje main square. This incident caused outrage and prompted condemnations even from SDSM officials, while pushing citizens to vote VMRO-DPMNE in the first round of the elections.

DUI insists that they must remain part of the next Government because they will win the most votes from ethnic Albanians – a dubious proposition since Ahmeti leads a coalition that involves parties representing other ethnic groups.

DUI perpetrates a myth about the rights of the Albanians and abuses it to enrich its top officials. Artan and Ali are rich as Saudi sheikhs, while the Albanian people starves and moves out of Macedonia. The worst abuses of Albanian rights in Macedonia came in these past twenty years, from the DUI criminals. Whenever they are caught in some crime, they try to shift the topic of discussion towward ethnic rights, while adding another million of our money to their coffers, Mickoski said.

He assured the voters in Gostivar, where VMRO helped an opposition Albanian candidate Arben Taravari become Prime Minister, that he will ensure that DUI is left in opposition and forced to reform.