A news site closely linked to the Zaev regime, known for its hate speech, published a fake report linked to the incident in the US Congress yesterday. According to Maktel.mk, ran by Sase Ivanovski – Politiko, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski called on the US authorities to give pardons to the protesters who stormed Capitol hill. 

Give pardons to all 50 who were arrested and those who are yet to be charged by the FBI. They are not violent thugs, they were protecting the Constitution. They were driven by emotions, by their love for their country and provoked by injustices. Once in office, VMRO-DPMNE will fight for justice for the brothers from April 27 and for the American brothers from January 6th, Maktel wrote, attributing this comment to Mickoski.

One problem with it – it’s entire made up. VMRO-DPMNE condemned the incident, insisting that “violence is not the road to a stronger democracy”.

Maktel includes only one half-sentence in which it acknowledges that the statement is one that “Mickoski should make”, not one that he actually made, in its otherwise completely fake news report.

The incident in Washington resonated strongly in Macedonia, where the Parliament was stormed on April 27 2017 by protesters angry at attempts by the SDSM and DUI parties to install a Government that would later rename the country and accept numerous concessions toward the Albanian nationalist cause, Bulgaria and Greece. The subsequent trials of the protesters were used to blackmail a group of members of Parliament from VMRO-DPMNE, who helped the protesters into the Parliament, to join SDSM and vote with them in changing the name of the country. The members of Parliament and protest organizers did receive pardons organized by SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, while over a dozen mere protesters remain in prison with lengthy sentences for “terrorism”.

SDSM has also embraced some of the alleged organizers of the protests, who now operate as their de-facto allies, while using the memory of the incident during which SDSM officials were slightly injured and one Albanian politician suffered serious injuries, to rally its supporters. After the pardons were given to the members of Parliament and protest organizers, VMRO has called that they are extended to the protesters as well.