The SDSM party has remained silent for the past two weeks, after Stevo Pendarovski issued a presidential pardon to Badri Zekiri, one of the leaders of the infamous Baron drug gang, said VMRO-DPMNE in a statement. The opposition party asks SDSM and their presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski to answer what exactly do they owe to one of the two main violent drug gangs in Skopje, to issue this scandalous pardon.

During the 2019 elections, Pendarovski insisted that there will be justice, because that is the only way we can have peace. Now, he broke his word, in way that includes giving a pardon to a person reportedly at the top of a drug gang responsible for mafia style killings and illegal drug trade. During the elections, Pendarovski said that if a President pardons such people, that is because he owes them something. Well, mr. Pendarovski, is this pardon and is your communication with narco bosses, the result of you owing them something? Did they help you get elected?, VMRO-DPMNE asks in their statement.

The Baron gang, and the equally brutal Grcec gang, are involved in an open war, with killings happening every few months, in Skopje and even in neighboring Greece.