The first pre-election televised debate between Hristijan Mickoski and Zoran Zaev was notable by Zaev’s declaration that his SDSM party is no longer a Macedonian party, but a multi-ethnic movement that will include Albanian and other groups.

This comes as SDSM is trailing badly behind VMRO among ethnic Macedonians and Zaev is forced to turn to Albanian factions or parties such as BESA to bolster his numbers. In 2016 this strategy allowed him to narrow his losing margin to VMRO, but it came after Zaev obscured the extent of the concessions he was willing to make to the detriment of Macedonian national issues. Three and a half years later, there is no doubt among Macedonians as to the lengths he will go.

Mickoski pointed out to the dismal numbers of Albanians who join Zaev during his campaign stops in Albanian majority areas, where SDSM and BESA and trying to intrude on the turf held by the DUI party, as well as the rising Alliance of Albanians. One such stop, in Aracinovo, where Zaev promoted newly laid sewage pipes, was attended by a very small number of people.

You lie to the Macedonians, and now you lie to the Albanians, Mickoski told Zaev about his outreach, adding that it undermines the inter-ethnic relations in Macedonia.

The sewage system in Aracinovo has become a dark national joke. Zaev insisted that Albanians don’t want a federalization (federalizacija in Macedonian) or partition of the country, but working sewage systems (kanalizacija in Macedonian). Given the history of ethnic strife, which includes the 2001 civil war and the 2015 Albanian attack on the city of Kumanovo, Zaev’s comment “kanalizacija, no federalizacija” is widely ridiculed by more skeptical observers.