VMRO-DPMNE official Antonio Milososki said that the opposition party will continue to push for a consensual agreement on when elections should take place, especially given the high level of deaths and newly infected Covid-19 patients. The ruling SDSM party demands elections on June 21, which other parties say is far too soon. VMRO-DPMNE wants elections in late August or September, when they expect the numbers of newly infected patients to go down.

A difference of a few weeks won’t matter much. Whenever the elections take place VMRO-DPMNE will win. We are also parents, we have adult relatives, and we need to look at things from the perspective of public health, Milososki said in a debate with representatives from other parties.

He noted that OSCE, which is supposed to deploy a monitoring mission, will be constrained given the travel restrictions and the short time that is available. “If we give them June 21 as the date, they may be able to send only 30 observers. Normally they send 300”, Milososki said.