VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski met with supporters in Gazi Baba, one of the Skopje districts that turned bright red during the presidential elections and voted overwhelmingly for the opposition. Mickoski said that Zoran Zaev’s promise to purge the corrupt members of his Government, given after the devastating results of the first round of the elections, means nothing if the Prime Minister himself is not among those that get removed.

Zaev spoke about the country as a shining example. But once he saw the electoral results, he promised to use the broom on his people. The elections are now over and the broom is back in the closet. He says he will reach for it again in a month. The broom is not the issue, it’s the person doing the sweeping. He is the one who should go, Mickoski said.

Zaev now postponed the “operation broom” for June and insists that the purge will include ministers as well as top level officials.