The Government has fiercely reacted to DUI Vice-President Arber Ademi’s comments during a 6 October interview with the 360 Stepeni (360 Degrees) show, broadcast on MTV1, that PM and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski was trying to convince foreigners that Ali Ahmeti’s party was allegedly ready to kill a mayoral candidate of its in order to cause an incident on the eve of the local elections.
“This is yet another fabrication by DUI. When they have nothing to offer and when they’re faced with their own failures and crimes, the only thing they can do is to make up stories and try to cause tensions. This is a tried-and-tested tactic of theirs whenever they feel they lose the people’s support.
Ali Ahmeti and leadership are desperate because they’re seeing, for the first time in two decades, that citizens from all ethnic communities are united against their rule founded on corruption, threats, and privileges. When they don’t mention [PM Hristijan] Mickoski’s name, DUI has nothing else to show”, it stated on Tuesday.
In the interview, Ademi had said DUI wasn’t flirting with nationalism, adding that it was exactly Mickoski who was doing so.
The PM, the DUI Vice-President stressed, has even taken things to the point that he is telling foreigners that DUI’s planning a scenario to allegedly kill a mayoral candidate of its to cause tensions, that the party’s planning to set a mosque on fire, as well as that the VMRO-DPMNE leader was accusing DUI of being behind the fire situation.
The following day, in Skopje, Ademi made similar allegations, that is, he said Mickoski was trying to make DUI and ethnic Albanian voters a non-factor.
On the other hand, the same day, at a rally in Mavrovo i Rostuse, VMRO-DPMNE leader Mickoski stated again that there were only two choices for citizens local elections, that is, the SDSM-DUI-Levica coalition and the option headed by VMRO-DPMNE.
“All elections are a chance for us to send a political message. Citizens should know what we can expect in the coming years, how the government plans to work, but also, at the same time, our political opponent should learn lessons of past mistakes”, he stressed.
Mickoski also levelled direct accusations at SDSM, saying that that party’s time in power from 2017 to 2024 had seen “a fierce robbery, treason, and humiliation of the Macedonian people”.
However, at a rally in Gevgelija, also on Tuesday, SDSM leader Venko Filipce said his message to Mickoski was that “Macedonia is neither your home nor your vilayet”.
He also criticised the PM’s “populism”.