VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski blasted the ruling SDSM party for selling out Macedonia’s history and said that no amount of money is worth selling your heritage. Every day, Mickoski added, brings new proof of how the Prespa treaty that renames and redefines Macedonia will erode the national identity, like the omission of the national anthem from the welcoming ceremony for the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The people in SDSM are ashamed of our centuries old past. The SDSM leadership has an issue with itself, and the Macedonian people have an issue with them. We resolve this issue on April 21st and we will put an end to it on May 5th, Mickoski said during the VMRO rally in Radovis.

The ruling coalition candidate, Stevo Pendarovski, has promoted the Prespa treaty as a necessary move that would lead to prosperity and will allow Macedonia to draw on endless EU funds, although the opposition candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova said he greatly over-estimated the benefits of the treaty in his portrayal. According to Mickoski, dignity must not be on sale.

We offer a dignified future with a prosperous country and well off citizens. They offer you a future by giving up on our past. We are proud of our past. Our past is our euro. We don’t have time for any more mistakes. We need to begin rebuilding our country from the ashes in which Zaev brought it, Mickoski said.

According to professor Siljanovska, who spoke in Radovis, the ruling coalition and her opponent Pendarovski not only banned the playing of the national anthem during the Tsipras reception, “even worse, they forgot the essence of the anthem”.