VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski will speak to European Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi today to discuss the push from the ruling SDSM party to hold early elections in July.

SDSM insists on July, even as Macedonia has by far the worst coronavirus rates in the region, and beyond, and citizens are so worried about the mishandling of the epidemic that the elections are destined to have an extremely low turnout. Seven people died over the past 24 hours from Covid-19, which ties the worst daily toll, itself only a week ago. Additionally 125 new cases were diagnosed, which is also one of the worst results of the entire epidemic.

Commissioner Varhelyi once already warned that for the elections to be considered fair, it will be required that all parties allowed to campaign and present their positions to the voters. SDSM has been campaigning throughout the epidemic, in violation of social distancing restrictions, and the party has dozens of its top officials and Government members either infected or in a precautionary quarantine. Still, the ruling party believes that a low turnout election will favor its interests best.

Before the call, VMRO representatives said that there is still no agreement between the opposition and the Government on when the postponed elections should take place. VMRO proposes that elections take place in August or September, hoping that the epidemic will abate by then.