In the last, third part of the Christmas interview with NetPress, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski discusses the situation in the media, the upcoming census, the political combinations for a new parliamentary majority, a coalition with one of the parties from the Albanian bloc, etc.
*Zoran Zaev, citing poll results, said that SDSM is again the leading party in the country and that if parliamentary elections were to be held at this time, it would have at least three more MPs than VMRO-DPMNE. How do you see these polls and such statements by the government?
Mickoski: Then let’s try to organize early parliamentary elections, along with the local elections next fall. That is the best test for Zoran Zaev to show that what he claims is really true. He previously said that SDSM has a lead of 6 percent, and then came the poll of a certain TV channel in which both parties were evened according to the ratings, although I was personally devalued and placed on the sidelines of the political arena in Macedonia. Now, Zaev says that they have a lead of 4 percent.
In one or two weeks, several different numbers are coming from SDSM. Either let them make a common denominator for all of them, so that the average value they want is known, or they should be encouraged to go to the polls. Because it is politically naive to have such an advantage, and not to use it and to depend on the fragile majority in the Parliament and to fear which MP will attend the session. It is illogical for a politician who is convinced that he has such an advantage not to want to achieve it through early elections.
*In that context, Zaev said that his government has the support of a stable majority in Parliament and there is no need for early elections. On the other hand, you said that you are in contact with MPs of the SDSM-led coalition.
Mickoski: I would give it some time to see how these things will develop.
*Local elections are coming next autumn. VMRO-DPMNE lost the previous elections catastrophically. How will the citizens be activated for the upcoming ones in order to defeat SDSM?
Mickoski: Certainly by offering good candidates, field work and unification. But the citizens should not be deceived that the next elections will be fair and in accordance with all regulations. There will be ballot box stuffing again, handing out cards, a fifth-sixth package already, blackmail, pressure and threats, i.e. everything that happened in the early parliamentary elections multiplied by two. Recently, the elections for mayor of Shtip were a general rehearsal for that.
We will respond to that by expanding the front, mobilizing voters, fieldwork and good candidates. But once we defeat them, the responsibility for all these four years will follow. And then the fate of SDSM would be like the one of PASOK in neighboring Greece.
