VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski expressed regret that the Kovacevski Government is refusing to meet him to discuss his proposal to alleviate the serious energy crisis. Mickoski, who was head of Macedonia’s key state owned energy producing system ELEM and has worked in the energy sector all his life, offered contacts to suppliers to the Government that could greatly reduce the price of imported fuels Macedonia is now dependent on. But first Kovacevski, and then his deputy Fatmir Bytyqi refused to meet.

Kovacevski deserted from my proposal for a televised debate. I then invited Fatmir Bytyqi, as the person responsible for economic issues in the Government to come to the VMRO-DPMNE office but he refused, and is instead inviting me to the economic council of the Government, stating it was a successful model of operations during the Covid crisis. In reality, we were the last in Europe to begin vaccinations, we begged other countries to give us vaccines, there were attempts to procure vaccines through shady companies. We had the highest mortality rate in Europe, patients burning alive in the Tetovo hospital and so on. If this model was successful, the Government would have secured energy and avoided the closure of the FENI smelter and the Bucim mine and now our citizens are losing their jobs with the winter on the way, Mickoski responded.

He repeated his offer to Government representatives to come to the VMRO office and discuss the proposal, adding that time is running out.