The orchestrated calls from a number of former VMRO-DPMNE officials that the party declares the electoral outcome to have been a defeat and that party leader Hristijan Mickoski resigns, are coming from SDSM and its leader Zoran Zaev, says one of the party founders Ivan Sokolov. The push is currently led by former security chief Saso Mijalkov, who was removed from the party for helping Zoran Zaev take over a total of nine of its members of Parliament during the imposed name change process, but the calls also came from former ministers Nikola Todorov and Nikola Poposki, as well as the group of expelled members of Parliament who voted with SDSM.

These people are Zaev’s servants, they are drumming up a campaign against Hristijan Mickoski to cover up Zaev’s own failures and scandals. For three years these people were nowhere to be seen when we needed them to speak out against Zaev’s destructive policies, but now they come out and comment on the post-election condition in VMRO-DPMNE. their only goal is to avoid paying the price for their own illegal activities, Sokolov said, pointing out that Mijalkov ended up the owner of the most luxurious hotel in Skopje but has escaped the campaign of political persecution against other VMRO officials initiated by Zaev.

A similar observation came from Frosina Remenski, the top SDSM official who is now apparently chosen as the party’s “sacrifical lamb” in the Racket scandal and stands trial for extortion. Remenski called out her party for its now open collusion with Mijalkov.

I can’t ignore how many SDSM supporters on the social networks are promoting persons from the opposition and are engaging in the infighting in the opposition. Did you forget who we fought against in 2016? After the interview with the Nachalnik (Mijalkov), what next? Will we promote Gordana Jankuloska or Orce Kamcev next?, Remenski asked her party supporters who were gleefully sharing Mijalkov’s request that Mickoski resigns as party leader. “Now that Mijalkov talks about European and pro-American values and democracy, will he return in politics? Did he ever leave?”, Remenski added.

VMRO won 44 seats in the elections, and SDSM has 46 (but including the 4 seats won by its coalition partner BESA) and neither of the two main parties has a clear shot at forming the next Government. Never the less, as the party holding power, SDSM has everything to lose at this moment, and is doing all it can to destabilize VMRO before the coalition talks begin.

In his rare public comments, Mijalkov insisted that he contributed to the creation of a winning modern conservative party, but that it now got the least votes since 2002 when “party leader Ljubco Georgievski and Ljube Boskoski were on the US black list and had oil smuggling, murders and other scandals behind them”. This result, according to Mijalkov, is the reason why Mickoski needs to resign. Mijalkov ignored that the fact that this year the elections were held in the midst of a fierce Second Wave of the coronavirus epidemic, driving the turnout sharply down.

Georgievski responded to Mijalkov, saying that over his nine years in office he was involved in numerous criminal activities. “Everything that this person with a suspicious past says needs to be taken with a lot of caution”, Georgievski said.