Presidential candidates Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova and Stevo Pendarovski held their first debate between the two election rounds this evening, with the issue of judicial accountability for politicians being at the top of the agenda.

The only European philosophy is that of the rule of law, of justice. I will try to persuade the voters that I will never negotiate on the rule of law issues and I will simply implement it to the full. I will fight to bring democracy into the undemocratic political system we have in Macedonia, said Siljanovska, promising justice and accountability if elected as President.

She clashed with Pendarovski over the selective amnesty which the ruling majority offered to three opposition members of Parliament who were among the more than a dozen representatives charged in various politically motivated cases. The three were pardoned for the April 2017 incident in the Parliament and immediately went on to vote in favor of the name change, while other co-defendants were sentenced to extremely long prison sentences of up to 18 years. Siljanovska accused Pendarovski, who himself insisted that he is the representative of SDSM’s Colored Revolution and of its call for accountability, that it turned out he only cares about the majority in Parliament.

Siljanovska cited a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung which reported the allegations raised by former Greek Defense Minister Kammenos that “black funds” from the Greek Foreign Ministry were used to fund media outlets in Macedonia which support the name change, and were used to bribe opposition members of Parliament who voted in favor of the name change. Pendarovski responded by blaming the FAZ journalist of working for former VMRO leader Nikola Gruevski.

It is a very respectable journalist from FAZ. I suppose you know he is a personal friend of Gruevski and I wouldn’t be surprised if the article was dictated to him from Budapest, Pendarovski snapped back.

A total of nine opposition members of Parliament voted for the name change. Three of them received direct amnesties, one saw a prison sentence against her son suspended, another had the sentence against his party leader reduced and many later “won” public procurement contracts or secured public sector jobs for their children or spouses. It is believed that the shocking horse-trading with the votes contributed to the dismal electoral result for Pendarovski in the first round of the elections, where he lost 200.000 votes – two fifths of the compared to the combined result of his SDSM party, DUI and the other smaller coalition parties in the 2017 municipal elections.

To save face, Pendarovski offered to organize a debate with the disappointed activists from the Colored Revolution, which Siljanovska also initially suppoted, but cooled on it as it became apparent that the real goal of the movement is to remove the Gruevski Government and force a name change.

Siljanovska also prodded Pendarovski for accepting the endorsement of the DUI party. During the Colored Revolution days, Pendarovski could hardly constrain himself when speaking against the Albanian terrorist group turned a political party.

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How do you expect to win the votes of the people you called vassals, apprentices to Gruevski, criminals?, Siljanovska asked him.

Faced with the significant lead Siljanovska and VMRO-DPMNE enjoy among ethnic Macedonians, SDSM and Pendarovski were forced to turn to the Albanian coalition partner, but the first round result revealed that either DUI is seriously underperforming, or SDSM is far from an equal match to VMRO if the two parties face each other independently. The Albanian opposition won 80.000 votes, and their distribution in the second round may be important, just as the votes of the angered former Colored Revolution adherents will be for the left and those of the right wing boycott movement will be for the right.