The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party accused SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev of pushing for early elections that will cost voters their lives. Zaev demands that the elections take place in June or early July, counting that the low turnout, as well as reasons linked to the economy and the treaty with Bulgaria, will help him fare better than if the elections took place in autumn, when the epidemic would have hopefully waned.

We lost three people to Covid-19 yesterday. They have parents, brothers, sisters, friends. But a person with no moral scrupls doesn’t care about these tragedies, VMRO-DPMNE said in a sharply worded press release after an interview in which Zaev pushed for elections on his timetable.

The opposition party notes that Macedonia has the worst Covid-19 mortality rate in the region, with 95 deaths out of 1.694 confirmed cases, and is greatly under-testing its citizens meaning that the actual death toll could be even higher.

While the epidemic is getting worse, Zaev is making plans how to reduce his margin of defeat at the elections and is pushing for a date based only on this consideration. With the lack of adequate testing, the Government is trying to dupe the public, but also the healthcare workers. Instead of focusing all their energy on fighting the virus, Zaev and his Minister Filipce are led by narrow partisan considerations, VMRO-DPMNE said.