The citizens are growing more and more concerned because of the mixed messages coming from the Government over the shortages, said VMRO-DPMNE official Timco Mucunski in a debate with SDSM representative Slavjanka Petrovska. Macedonia faced food shortages in some markets this week, and its first gas lines in decades on Thursday evening.

The President of the country tells us that since November we knew that there are serious indications about a coming crisis. He also says that we asked Serbia to help us with grain, and the President of Serbia says the same. But then one Minister says that we did not ask for help but Serbia chose to privde it, another claims that our strategic reserves are full.. The citizens are panicking because they are by now accustomed to see the Government fail at its job and does not act on time, Mucunski said.

Serbia announced shipments of 50,000 tons of grain and 25,000 tons of corn to support Macedonia as the two main grain producing countries in Europe are in war. Petrovska, who is Defense Minister in the Kovacevski Government, responded that the intelligence reports are not of the kind that should have led the President to convene the National security council, and claimed that the institutions were acting in accordance with the reports.