Parties Adhere to Views on Election Date Issue

Defense Secretary James N. Mattis meets with the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Macedonia Radmila Šekerinska during a visit to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2018. (DoD photo by Army Sgt. Amber I. Smith)

SDSM’s Radmila Sekerinska says that the election deadline issue isn’t one of political wishes or subject to consensus among parties. “It is regulated in the country’s Constitution and laws,” she points out. According to Sekerinska, the state of emergency cannot be extended infinitely because the country cannot function without a legislative home. She adds that a government with full political legitimacy, too, should be elected. VMRO-DPMNE considers swift elections to be the priority of SDSM leader Zoran Zaev and Health Minister Venko Filipce. “The Government is losing the battle with the epidemic. Citizens, unfortunately, are losing their health and lives as a result of irresponsibility. Macedonia should first defeat the corona epidemic,” the opposition party said. On Wednesday night, Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi spoke to Zoran Zaev and Hristijan Mickoski to, as he tweeted, “stress the importance of free, fair, inclusive elections” the country, taking into account the coronavirus situation, as well as the need to efficiently address economic recovery.