Kavadarci, 9 October 2025 (MIA) — SDSM leader Venko Filipche at a campaign rally in Kavadarci said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski did not want to implement any reforms in the judiciary, MIA's Kavadarci correspondent reports.

"Why haven't you done anything? Why haven't you reformed the judiciary and the prosecution? Why are you afraid to do it, Mickoski? Is it because you know that, if the judiciary becomes truly independent, half of your government will have to answer before the law?" Filipche said.

According to him, Mickoski does not want an independent judiciary but rather his own judiciary and prosecutors prosecuting a list of names written down "in the notebooks at the White Palace."

"If you really want justice, be a man. Say that everyone will be held accountable — be they from SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE, any other party. Make reforms and you will have our support," Filipche said.

The SDSM president also said the agricultural sector had been destroyed over the past year. He said the government ignored the needs of small farmers and favored some companies over others. Citizens, he added, were witnessing the cost of living going up and the standard of living going down.

"And the government talks about 'achievements.' Today we have a new 'achievement.' Can you imagine, the government has decided to tax shipments from abroad, those 20 euros or less. 

"What people were able to buy cheaply online will no longer be cheap," he said. 

"In a country where the shadow economy is 40%, where the people are impoverished by high taxes for which they don't get any decent public services, a new tax is now being introduced on cheap items from the Internet. This is what the government's priority was," Filipche said.

SDSM mayoral candidate Viktor Velevski said his election platform was based on an uncompromising fight for justice, freedom and equality.

If elected Kavadarci mayor, he said he would "fight shoulder to shoulder with the workers, the farmers, the disadvantaged and the socially oppressed." mr/