Citizens of Mavrovo held a protest against the rising cases of new tourist developments – buildings, hotels and villas, which they say are destroying the unique area around the mountainous artificial lake and the ski resort.

An incident happened last week when a local citizen tried to prevent construction machines from breaking new ground, and was nearly ran over. The posh ski resort area is popular with tourists but has seen only limited construction over the decades – a situation that is quickly changing. It also suffers from overuse of the lake for electricity production – lake Mavrovo is reduced to a little more than a pond in the past months.

The VMRO-DPMNE party expressed its support to the citizens in their fight against developers.