The government publicly said that they knew about the aggression against Ukraine 4 months ago, which means that a responsible government would prepare for a price and economic shock, said the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski.

But they failed to deal with what is most important to the citizens, their standard. What is happening in Macedonia today is not a reflection of the war in Ukraine, but a consequence of an incompetent government. The increase in the fuel prices is a severe social blow to the citizens in every respect, to the employees, the unemployed, the farmers, the industry, the economy.

This is not the time for excuses. The government should immediately give up half of the excise tax it receives from fuels and accept the proposal of VMRO-DPMNE, which is stuck in the parliamentary labyrinths to reduce the excise tax by 50 percent. 43% of the price of gasoline is duties to the state for each liter of fuel. To reduce VAT on food. Instead of a 5 percent tax rate for food, it should be zero percent and we are asking for the heating to be reduced to zero, Mickoski wrote on Facebook.

He demands that the VAT on electricity remain at the same level of 5% until the end of the year. And very importantly, wage growth in the public sector by aligning the labor force weight ratio with what has already been agreed in collective agreements.

There is money in the budget, let them stop stealing, let the unproductive spending be stopped, the procurements for gold plates, let the public spending be controlled, says Mickoski.