VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said at Friday’s press conference that the health of the citizens is above all, but also pointed out that as a society we have to admit that there is an additional crisis period for the Macedonian economy that is under serious attack.

We closely monitor the situation with the development and the spread of the coronavirus. Forecasts are worrying and the situation is not improving. What is suffering is the health of the citizens, but also an important segment of the economy. Health is above all, but as a society, we must admit that there is an additional crisis period for the Macedonian economy that is under serious attack. There have been a number of ommissions, inconsistencies and unpreparedness of government structures and authorities to deal with the consequences of the coronavirus and ommissions in organizing prevention.

What is necessary during this period is the adoption of a set of anti-crisis measures for the health of citizens and assistance to the affected economy. Yesterday, in consultation with a team of doctors and members of the Health Committee of VMRO-DPMNE, as well as the economic team we developed and today we offer a set of anti-crisis measures for the protection of citizens and business assistance. But above all, in order to implement these measures as the Parliament is dissolved and dysfunctional, VMRO-DPMNE proposes to the government to immediately declare a state of emergency throughout the country in accordance with Art. 3, paragraph 1, line 5 of the Crisis Management Law, Mickoski said.

Mickoski said that the party proposes an additional set of measures to protect the health of citizens, which include procuring antiseptic means and their placement in public circulation areas which citizens will freely use, procuring free masks and gloves for the citizens, establishing an expert body which will help state institutions to implement strict control of any abuses of defining high prices for the sale of masks, antiseptics and other preventive aids, providing free assets to protect workers at high risk of coronavirus infection, reducing the work of the state administration, with half of the administration being released from and making a cyclical work schedule of the state bodies, increasing human capacities in healthcare facilities directly responsible for dealing with the consequences of the coronavirus, setting up a 24-hour hotline for consultation and questions related to the virus, establishing a special state control body whose sole task will be to oversee and control the implementation of the preventive measures, one-time monetary assistance and completely free treatment for those suffering from the virus.

Moreover, VMRO-DPMNE also proposes economic anti-crisis measures for March which involve freezing the obligations of companies towards the state, whose work is affected by the situation with the coronavirus, freezing companies’ obligations to banks and lenders, authorities to cancel and pay the March interest rates of the citizens and the economy to banks and lenders, authorities to pay costs for employees in companies affected by the coronavirus up to 50 percent and to immediately analyze everything that has been affected by the new situation with the coronavirus and on the basis of that analysis to identify the economic operators, the companies that are affected and to immediately assist them.