During the European People’s Party assembly in Brussels, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski met with the front-runner to be the next European Commission President Manfred Weber, who is currently EPP chair in the European Parliament. As in his other meetings, Mickoski detailed how the Macedonian Government has abused the judiciary to go against its political opponents, as well as about the on-going attempts to rig the coming presidential elections.

I had the opportunity to inform my interlocutors about all the failures in the Republic of Macedonia, about the real reality and everyday life in the Republic of Macedonia, in the economy, the education, about all the crimes committed in the healthcare sector, about the increase in crime and corruption that we had over the past period. But what most worried my interlocutors, and what worries me and all the citizens in the Republic of Macedonia, is actually the fact that the Republic of Macedonia is no longer a state of the rule of law. Practically, law and justice were traded away to accomplish political ambitions, the leader of the opposition party said.

To illustrate the point, Mickoski named only the most recent attacks in Macedonia – the grenade rocket launcher attack against a coffee shop in downtown Skopje on Monday early morning – just across the main courthouse, and the armed robbery of a bank later that day perpetrated by five masked men armed with automatic rifles. Two more shops were burnt in the vicinity of the grenade assault, in clear signs that violent crime is becoming rampant.

 

VMRO-DPMNE demands early general elections to be held along with the presidential elections in April, under the rules put in place during the Przino negotiations – meaning a resignation of the Prime Minister and replacement of several key ministers with opposition officials who will ensure that the elections are free and fair. The ruling SDSM party still hasn’t responded to the request, and Mickoski says that this is a prelude in rigging the presidential elections given that these security measures are not in place for presidential elections alone.

I informed my interlocutors about our fears that Zoran Zaev, by running away from early general elections, wants to steal the presidential elections, and at the same time everything that happened in the past period to be a certain kind of evidence of his intentions to rig the presidential elections. Organizing fair elections must become a condition for the progress in European integration,” added the president of VMRO-DPMNE.

In Brussels he met with other EPP officials, such as the Vice President of the European People’s Party and chairman of the EP’s Committee on Foreign Relations, David McAllister, and members of European Parliament Eduard Kukan and Ivo Vajgl, who are rapporteurs for Macedonia.

Both EPP members from Macedonia and Greece, VMRO-DPMNE and New Democracy, oppose the so-called Prespa deal to rename Macedonia, which was negotiated by the socialist parties from both countries, without opposition input and against the wishes of the majority of the citizens. Weber was at one point quoted by a left wing news site from Brussels as allegedly being supportive of the deal, but shortly after he denied ever being interviewed on the issue and expressed support for New Democracy, which voted against the renaming deal.