MP and member of the VMRO-DPMNE Executive Committee DafinaStojanoska said during an interview with Sitel TV’s main news broadcast from the Municipality of Brvenica that the VLEN coalition failed to distinguish itself from the policies of DUI. Instead, in the mayoral runoff, it threw its support behind the candidate from the NAI coalition, according to a statement from VMRO-DPMNE.
Stojanoska pointed out that in the first round, VMRO-DPMNE and the Your Macedonia coalition supported their own candidate, StojanchoRadichevski, while VLEN fielded its own candidate, only to join the NAI candidate in the runoff.
“I don’t believe that VLEN is a major factor in the Municipality of Brvenica; in fact, the results from the first round of the elections here demonstrated this. To be clear, we campaigned separately in these elections, our party, together with the Your Macedonia coalition, supported our candidate, StojanchoRadichevski. VLEN, meanwhile, campaigned for its own candidate in the first round, but decided to align with the NAI candidate in the runoff,” said Stojanoska.
The ruling party MP also criticized the VLEN coalition, accusing it of acting in favor of DUI during the second round of the elections in Brvenica, rather than seizing the opportunity to demonstrate that it is politically distinct from that party, and suggested that VLEN had effectively played the role of a Trojan horse.
“It is regrettable that VLEN failed to use this opportunity to show that they are different from DUI—or, for that matter, from SDS and Levica. I believe they acted as a ‘Trojan horse’ and played into the hands of DUI; essentially, they fragmented the vote. As for whether this serves as a test for the governing coalition, I do not believe the local elections in Brvenica constitute such a test. On the contrary, the true test for the coalition lies in the implementation of the government’s program, which, as far as I can see, is currently proceeding according to plan,” noted Stojanoska.