Infrastructure investments are at mere 1.67 percent in January 2020, the Kurir news site reports based on Finance Ministry data. This is by far the lowest level of spending the money that are already appropriated in the budget for building up Macedonia’s infrastructure since its independence.

The SDSM led Government has struggled over the past three years to begin new infrastructure projects, or even complete nearly finished highways started by the VMRO-DPMNE led Government, and has often redistributed unspent infrastructure funds toward welfare transfers.

Opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski, who recently promised a two billion EUR infrastructure push under the next VMRO-DPMNE led Government, blamed SDSM leader Zoran Zaev for this complete failure during their recent debate. The hallmark of the VMRO plan is to build a highway connecting Skopje to Bitola through Prilep, and to finally complete a railway link to Bulgaria.