Prime Minister Zoran Zaev made a shocking statement during an interview on Wednesday evening, that the Government will allow struggling companies to go under. Much of the Macedonian economy is in the doldrums due to the coronavirus epidemic and Government mandated closures and restrictions, but Zaev’s message yesterday was that the companies can’t expect continued stimulus measures.

The Government has a complex focus with a clear vision as to what we want to accomplish. Primarily, the companies who are struggling, who are making losses, we will let them fail. It’s not sustainable, here or in Europe. All efforts will be focused on what we consider to be the economic locomotives, Zaev said.

Opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski blasted Zaev’s comment, saying that his SDSM party has long rejected all proposals from VMRO-DPMNE to make the stimulus measures more energetic and oriented toward the businesses.

Zaev just told thousands of companies who are losing money mainly because of the crisis, that their owners and employees will be left to fend for themselves, with no help from the Government. Thousands will be left in the streets. These “locomotives” Zaev talks about are the mafia companies who are given millions in Government contracts, Mickoski said.

He asked Zaev about his pre-election promise of five major foreign investments in September, which never materialized.

Yesterday, he said that he has three billion EUR in investments lined up. And immediately today we hear that two contracts with foreign investors are being canceled. He says he will reduce the public administration by 20 percent, which will translate into a political vendetta, to release money for the infrastructure. We already have the funds for capital investment, but his team tasked with implementing them are so incompetent they’re being diverted to welfare spending to buy the social peace for a few days more. This mafia needs to go down if Macedonia is to survive, Mickoski said.