Konche, 24 October 2025 (MIA) — VMRO-DPMNE and the coalition will fight for every single person and not leave anyone behind, with the ambition of winning 59 mayoral seats in the local elections, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said at a campaign rally in the Konche municipality's village of Rakitec ahead of the Nov. 2 mayoral runoff.

Mickoski recalled that VMRO-DPMNE's mayoral candidates had already won or were in the lead in 58 municipalities. The party, he said, had also won 86 more seats on town councils than in the 2021 local elections.

He also said none of the VMRO-DPMNE mayors elected in 2021 had had a single scandal or any reasonable suspicion of crime or corruption. He said the same was true for his government over the past 16 months.

"VMRO-DPMNE is a people's party, so what matters most to us is the support of the people," he said.

"When I say the most important thing, it is to overcome the challenges at home, to win in Konche, too, and raise the price of tobacco, raise the price of peppers, have a better life," he said.

At the same time, Mickoski said, the trust voters put in the government made the governement's position much stronger abroad.

"Because it is not enough to win at home," he said. 

"VMRO-DPMNE has the honor of protecting the national interests of one of the smallest nations in Europe, which is the Macedonian nation, and by protecting the national interests of Macedonians, we protect the interests of our fellow citizens, Albanians, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs, Roma, Bosniaks and all others who live with us in this shared homeland of ours where we were all born, where we work, where we cheer, sometimes we mourn and where, most likely, most of us will end our lives," the VMRO-DPMNE leader said.

He also sent a message to the "erstwhile great SDSM," noting that the political party "was struggling to cross the threshold of hundreds of thousands of votes."

Speaking to "people who love our common homeland Macedonia, who love their SDSM, both experienced and young," Mickoski encouraged their "good synergy" and invited them to be "our good political opponent who, naturally, we will defeat again." 

"But I call on you," he said, "if you want to change this difficult, bad and painful reality and this political swamp in which your SDSM is sinking, go out on Nov. 2 and do not vote for SDSM's candidate." 

SDSM members should vote for VMRO-DPMNE's candidate instead, "because only by doing so can you change things in your SDSM," Mickoski said. mr/