Elections and EU Path among Topics at Kovacevski-Mickoski TV Duel

Wednesday’s TV duel between SDSM leader Dimitar Kovacevski and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski saw the two party leaders voice stands and trade criticism and accusations over many topics.

Asked what type of President North Macedonia needed, SDSM leader Kovacevski said he was convinced that the candidate endorsed by his coalition, current President Stevo Pendarovski, would be re-elected.

According to Kovacevski, Pendarovski has shown since 2019 that he is a President of all citizens and hasn’t made any strategic mistakes. On the other hand, Mickoski said Pendarovski didn’t deserve at all to be re-elected.

In his view, VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, will win as early as the first round of the election, on 24 April.

Regarding the EU path, that is, the issue of constitutional changes to include Bulgarians, Mickoski once again criticised the ruling structure for accepting that condition.

He once again said, adamantly, that under the current conditions, there would be no Constitution change.

Kovacevski said the negotiations on the EU proposal hadn’t been easy. When one negotiates with France, Bulgaria, other countries, with issues related to the Macedonian identity being on the table at the start, then, it takes patience, boldness, and knowledge alike to bring those negotiations to a level of talks on minority issues, he assessed.