President Stevo Pendarovski called for reconciliation, as part of his Ilinden address. Macedonia remains deeply divided as result of the years long political crisis and the imposed name change.

I hope and expect that my initiative for reconciliation will be supoprted by the next Government and opposition and by all citizens regardless of their ethnic background and partisan affiliation. The politization and the ethnic division undermines our institutions, their democratic capacity and long term legitimacy. Reconciliation is the basic condition for the functioning of a democratic pluralistic society, Pendarovski said.

In his speech at the ASNOM memorial center in Pelince he also expressed his dissatisfaction with the spectacular failure of the promised anti-corruption push initiated by his SDSM party, that centered around the now thoroughly disgraced Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva.

Our citizens rightfully look with dissappointment at the prosecutorial office that was symbol of all our hopes that we will handle organized crime, and which fell apart as the consequence of itself becoming part of the organized crime. Every abuse of trust, of judicial procedures, every rigged procurement contract contributes to having more and more young people decide to close their businesses and move to other countries, Pendarovski said.