Zoran Zaev made a third statement in two days declaring the opposition as “evil”. He made the comment in his non-concessions speech on Monday morning, as his SDSM party was trounced in the local elections on Sunday, and reiterated it with a statement later on Monday.

Now, in a second statement, he urges his “comrades” from the party to unite against the evil.

It’s time to unite because against us are the same thugs and criminals who are destroying our country for years… They say that, for the evil to triumph, it’s enough for the good people to say nothing. This time, we won’t observe and do nothing while the evil threatens us. We will act. I demand action from all our municipal organizations, Zaev said.

His party badly lost in the first round of the local elections, in some urban areas losing half the support SDSM had in the previous local elections. VMRO-DPMNE managed to largely maintain its popular support, and with the SDSM collapse, that was enough to win overwhelmingly in all urban centers except for Zaev’s stronghold of Strumica.

The capital Skopje, Bitola, Ohrid and a host of smaller cities and rural municipalities remain to elect mayors on October 31st.