Out of 783 delegates attending the 23rd congress of SDSM, 712 unanimously voted and picked Stevo Pendarovski as the candidate for president of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Pendarovski began his address with gratitude for the support, and as he wrote Saturday on Facebook, he said that it is an honor to receive support from 31 political parties and citizens from all ethnic communities. He expressed special gratitude to the leader of SDSM and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev who, as he said, made a political precedent and gave him the chance to be again presidential candidate after five years, since 2014, when he said, “we were all subject to brutal electoral engineering”.

He said he was glad that for the first time since independence, three Albanian political parties supported his nomination.

He mentioned the other favorites of SDSM, Spasovski, Dimitrov and Shekerinska, who said are his friends and comrades for the same cause. He said the current government had done a miracle with two things – the taking down the regime and the Agreement with Greece, adding that only those two things are enough to be remembered in history.

You have given me a huge political responsibility, which I intend to justify in the months and years ahead, in the interest of a better and happier life of all our citizens, said Pendarovski, adding that today is a particularly emotional day for him.