VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski responded to claims from the ruling SDSM party that they have already implemented 90 percent of their previous pre-election program.

If this were true, the average wage should’ve been 500 EUR by now, and we would’ve had 500 kilometers of new highways. And the air would’ve been 90 percent cleaner and justice would’ve been 90 percent delivered. Have they no shame? I see they are even using our slogan, for the coming Renewal of Macedonia. But it won’t save them from accountability for the devastation they caused, Mickoski said.

In a Facebook post, he noted how the SDSM party, in its first negative ads, has to resort to images from the previous SDSM administrations, under Branko Crvenkovski – a period of dramatic economic decline and rising crime. In comparison, the last period of the VMRO rule, between 2006 and the start of the political crisis SDSM began in 2015, was a period of growing standards and opening of dozens of new factories.