Zaev needs to stop talking about him in the third person and needs to assume responsibility for the failures of his healthcare policies, said opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski. Yesterday Zaev was asked about the tremendous lag in providing vaccines and the lack of restrictive measures due to his insistence that Macedonia must hold a census in April – both contributed to the exceptionally high infection rate the country has now. He went on a typical rambling tirade using the third person for himself and said that he will not resign and neither will any of his top officials.

The least Zaev should have done is to assume responsibility. But that is done only by statesmen, by people who are self-aware. It’s obvious that he lacks these qualities, Mickoski said.

The opposition leader also condemned the head of the Committee for Infectious Diseases doctor Zarko Karadzovski, who came to Zaev’s defense, insisting that leaders like Merkel or Boris Johnson are not being asked to resign for their failures. Mickoski said that the answer is more fitting of a politician than an expert.