Skopje, 3 May 2024 (MIA) - SDSM leader Dimitar Kovachevski said Friday a preliminary analysis made by the party's election headquarters showed that the dissatisfaction among the citizens reflected in the election result of the first round of the presidential elections was due to certain personnel decisions, behavior of some of the coalition partners in the government, above all of certain DUI officials, inflation and distrust in the judiciary. 

"In addition, when looking at the number of votes on the right side VMRO-DPMNE, which is 360,000, there are more parties on the left side. It is a fact that SDSM, i.e. President Pendarovski, won 180,000 votes and it is a fact that a former SDSM mayor, due to certain decisions made in the past and his disagreement with some SDSM officials, went alone, formed a political party where votes that are either of SDSM members or traditional SDSM votes were cast, so when adding up the votes of the right and the left spectrum then the difference is within what it was in the past," said Kovachevski.

He told Sitel TV that individuals in DUI have behaved inappropriately and certain officials were not up to the task during the mandate of the SDSM-led government. Kovachevski noted that he had no talks with DUI after the first round of the presidential elections and the coalition cooperation ended on January 25, when the mandate of the government ended.

"I agree that individuals in DUI were too much at liberty with their behavior, which was also inappropriate behavior. I cannot generalize. I can say that I personally cooperated very well with some of the DUI ministers - the finance minister is a top economist, he worked day and night on anti-crisis measures, on securing funds with the IMF together with Bytyqi and with Filip Nikolovski, who is from our party. However, there were others who were not up to the task. I condemned what Ali Ahmeti did at the city square in Skopje with the 'UCK' chanting. That has nothing to do with the slogan they are proclaiming in these elections - 'European Front'. How is it possible to promote a 'European Front' without a single European flag at a rally at the square of the capital and by chanting something from 24 years ago that only brings ghosts of the past that have been buried. Mickoski and Gordana Siljanovska match that with their national rhetoric," Kovachevski said. 

Regarding ZNAM leader Maksim Dimitrievski's proposal that the entire SDSM leadership should resign, Kovachevski said he was convinced that was not intended to SDSM, but only written so as to justify ZNAM's decision to support VMRO-DPMNE candidate Gordana Siljanovska Davkova in the second round of the presidential elections.

"And that is what happened yesterday when their leader said he will go to the polls and he will not vote for Stevo Pendarovski, but for the other candidate. That is a call to his voters. On the other hand, I urge all voters, including those who voted for him in the first round, to choose the right social-democratic option, because in 2006 we saw what such a split of the left looked like, which eventually ended with reunification," said Kovachevski.

Asked whether he will take responsibility if defeated at the elections, Kovachevski said he will leave that for after May 8.

"As regards taking responsibility, we will leave that for after the elections on May 8. Do not doubt the democratic and moral and ethical capacity of Dimitar Kovachevski. Otherwise, my future in SDSM will be in SDSM," said Kovachevski.

Photo: SDSM