In an update from Brussels, VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski says that the European People’s Party stands behind VMRO and its call that the early general elections go ahead as planned on April 12. The election date was agreed by all major parties in Macedonia during a meeting in October, but SDSM leader Zoran Zaev has since tried several excuses to avoid going to the polls. The latest reason Zaev put forward today is that the law on state prosecutors must be adopted before the Parliament is dissolved.

During the parliamentary assembly of the EPP I informed the members of the situation in Macedonia, the poor economic developments, the crime and corruption, but also of Zaev’s attempt to flee the elections. The European People’s Party supports VMRO-DPMNE. The elections will be held and VMRO-DPMNE will win, Nikoloski said in a social media post.

Election preparations are already well advanced, with a caretaker Government in place to organize the elections, but they are only certain after Parliament is dissolved on February 12, and if past experience from Zaev’s attempts to avoid elections in 2016 is any guide, possibly not even then. In 2016 Zaev and his international supporters got the Constitutional Court to reconvene the already dissolved Parliament to postpone the elections until all preparations were in place for Zaev’s SDSM party to be dragged across the finish line.