Most online polls that sprung up after the first televised debate between Hristijan Mickoski and Zoran Zaev show the opposition leader considered a winner of the exchange by a roughly two to one margin. VMRO-DPMNE issued a press release saying that the debate showed why Zaev sought to restrict his public appearances and confrontations with Mickoski, and avoided the more hostile terrain of Alfa TV.

Before the entire public, Zaev yesterday said that he doesn’t remember if there is a written report that he ever went to the prosecutors to inform them about the Racket scandal. He also “doesn’t remember” whether he warned the racketeers who are closely tied to him that they are being followed. He confirmed that he is the man who manages the judiciary, orders prosecution and sentencing over the phone and ends cases in the style he described as “WHAM BAM, it’s gone”. He claimed that the father of his adviser Bojan Maricic is a retiree while he is still active at the high prosecutor’s office and is involved in persecution against political opponents. Zaev couldn’t say where he built a single kilometer of new highways or which investment did he bring to Strumcia, VMRO-DPMNE said in its press release.

Comments after the debate show how the two leaders are clearly held to different standards by the public. Zaev, who has often made claims that have quickly been debunked, was commented most for the entertainment value – his gaffes, style of speaking, the large wooden plank placed under his chair to make him look almost as tall as Mickoski. Mickoski was judges mostly on the substance, with the commentators expecting to hear what his administration would do on the economy, the rule of law and the name issue.