The SDSM – BESA coalition is an attempt to manipulate voters and a desperate attempt to save Zoran Zaev, said VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski about the declared partnership of SDSM with the small ethnic Albanian party.

BESA was discussing a pre-election coalition with the other opposition Albanian parties, but SDSM was able to lure it into its camp, in an attempt to soften the blow from its expected loss to VMRO-DPMNE among ethnic Macedonians. According to Nikoloski, this coalition will try to obscure the will of the two largest nations in Macedonia which was usually the way a ruling coalition was formed.