SDSM – DUI presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski lashed out against the conservative Alfa TV station, accusing them of lying, after Alfa reported that his camp ignored an invitation for a pre-election debate with opposition candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova.

In order to prevent the spread of speculation, we want to emphasize that the joint presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski responded to the invitation. We told Alfa TV that the presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski has a full schedule and is unable to accept the invitation. We accepted an interview with Alfa, Pendarovski’s campaign said in a press release.

It’s unclear when the response was sent to Alfa. This is the second time Pendarovski acted out nervously against a TV station which informed the public that he refused to debate Siljanovska there. Shortly after the first round of the elections, Telma TV said that Pendarovski accepted and then turned down a debate invitation. Telma, a pro-Government channel, replied that Siljanovska accepted the invitation, but Pendarovski turned it down.

This prompted strong criticism of Telma editor Snezana Lupevska – Sozen on the part of other Pendarovski supporting media outlets. One of them, Maktel, led by the controversial pro-Government attack journalist Saso Ivanovski, accused Lupevska of failing to be loyal to Pendarovski even after he “made her career”.

Lupevska was famously kidnapped by Albanian terrorists in the village of Tanusevci in early 2001, a move which pushed the country into the months long insurgency in which hundreds of soldiers and civilians were killed by the Albanian NLA/UCK group. Pendarovski was a top Interior Ministry official then, and Ivanovski’s comment raised the issue of whether he tipped Lupevska off about the terrorist group in Tanusevci and sent her in harm’s way, escalating the tensions in the process.

Pendarovski had a few other testy interactions with the media. He accused a notable German journalist who reported on the widespread allegations about the way in which the Prespa treaty was rammed through the Parliaments of Macedonia and Greece of “working for Gruevski“. And he also condemned the filming of a short, feel-good video by Siljanovska and the third presidential candidate Blerim Reka, saying he was excluded from the idea, only to have the project organizers say that he was invited and never replied to the invitation.