The race among SDSM party supporters for the most over the top flattery aimed at their party leader Zoran Zaev is heating up. Early contestants included Sonja Borizovska from Kumanovo, who mixed her effusive praise of the leader with an open pitch to have him create a new public position tailor made for her. She was quickly pushed to the side by Darko Kaevski, head of the Youth and Sports Agency who gushed over who he will regale his grand-children with stories about his life in the “age of Zoran Zaev”, and compared the SDSM leader with Communist era strongman Marshall Tito – still considered a praiseworthy figure in this ex-Communist party.
But, it’s still early in the presidential campaign, and as Zaev endorses and visibly enjoys the cringe-worthy praise he receives during his public events, there is no shortage of new candidates. Two sisters from Prilep grabbed the microphone during the rally Zaev organized for his presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski on Monday evening and what followed was an unprecedented level of public buttering up.
Respected future President of our country, Republic of North Macedonia, I want to speak in the name of all the people gathered here to tell you that you transmit a warmth, a magic which makes us unafraid to come closer to you, to tell you what is deep nside, kept like a timed bomb but we were afraid to say it publicly, to say who we are, what we are. I thank you for your attention you speak to us as humans, as human to human. Respected Mr. Zoran Zaev, I’m too excited to stand before you. Many times I walked in my life but never had the honor to stand next to Prime Ministers, Presidents. I don’t have a father, no parent, so I wish you are my future father, for me and my country and all the people who love you, said Natasa Trenkovska.
Pendarovski tried cutting her off with a hug at one point during the tirade, but the SDSM activist kept at it. “With each of your words, we echo; on each of your commands, we jump; your outstretchted hand gives us hope to keep walking, to have some protection, to be protected in a humane way”.
Thank you for your lovely words, your pore your soul out, Zaev responded while going for a group hug with the woman, her sister and Pendarovski. “Zaev bled for Macedonia, we will never forget that image, this man deserves it all, he is the hero of peace, love, unity, the one and only. I hope you will be his right hand and Macedonia (sic) will go far with the two of you”, shouted her sister Elisaveta Trenkoska Shikleska after she too took the microphone.
Some of the more grounded SDSM supporters have called on Zaev to try and curb this North Korean style idolatry, but the Prime Minister is happily lapping it up and asking for more.
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