Following a series of embarrassing North Korean style celebrations of Zoran Zaev and Stevo Pendarovski, the SDSM party temporarily reduced the “open mic” opportunities for attendees at their rallies.

But in Karpos on Sunday, supporters were invited to speak again, and the gaffes followed. Among them, an elderly man, his hands trembling as he read a poem about how “this country” will soon join NATO.

We will win the elections because we like the light, and they want the dark. My poetic soul tells me to express my feelings with the song I titled Joyfulness.

The cage is breaking.

The bird flies to find a new flock.

The sun of love warms its path.

Such joy has gathered in my heart.

The dream of centuries is now reality…

The sun is shining, the bird is flying

And in NATO it will land, the man read while Pendarovski looked on.

The most widely shared “open mic” moments from the SDSM rallies blended the praise of Zaev and Pendarovski for their promises that prosperity will follow after “this country” joins NATO and the European Union, mixed with thinly veiled requests from constituents who want a job in the public sector. The former Communist party staunchly opposed NATO, and in one of the most viral gaffes, party official Darko Kaevski compared Zaev to Marshall Tito, the Yugoslav Communist strongman who opposed NATO and helped instigate Socialist, anti-Western revolutions across the Third World.