The opposition parties in the country held Friday a meeting ahead of the local elections.

Namely, the leaders of the Alliance for Albanians and Alternativa, Ziadin Sela and Afrim Gashi, met with VMRO-DPMNE leader, Hristijan Mickoski.

At the meeting, they discussed the upcoming local elections and the possibility for cooperation between their parties, with the main motive being the fight against corruption and crime represented in the municipalities led by the SDSM/DUI coalition.

The three leaders noted that based on Transparency International’s report, according to which Macedonia is ranked111th in the world, opposition co-operation was inevitable, in order to free local self-government units from corrupt governance, non-transparent spending and the abuses of the SDSM/DUI government at all levels of state administration.

Therefore, they concluded, it is necessary to cooperate in order for the municipalities to be institutions in the service of the citizens, with strong and balanced local economic development, with budget support for decentralization in the fields of education, culture and sports, as well as with striving to become green municipalities that will provide clean air and environmental protection.

In order to better articulate the opposition vote, as well as to best represent the interests of all citizens at the local level, the three leaders, emphasizing these principles, decided on mutual cooperation and support of mayoral candidates. The cooperation means that the mentioned parties will not nominate candidates for mayors in certain municipalities and will support each other, and in other municipalities will run with all other parties.