Gostivar, 21 July 2026 (MIA) – Today we visited several at-risk families, elderly people, pensioners to hand over packages and we’ll keep doing so in the coming days, SDSM leader Venko Filipche stated Tuesday during a visit to Gostivar.

The goal of the Gostivar visit, he said, is not to politicize the water contamination issue, of what I being accused by VMRO-DPMNE, but to help several categories of citizens.

“It’s obvious that elementary human rights, including the right to health as well as the right to safe, drinking water is involved,” Filipche told reporters in Gostivar.

Speaking to members of the media, the opposition leader asked the institutions who is responsible for the water contamination incident in Gostivar and why th drinking water wasn’t analysed every day. 

“Also, why when there was a surge in patients in the hospital, the reason for it was not investigated properly so as to act swiftly? Why was nothing done by the health authorities to manage the issue epidemiologically, to analyze where the symptoms come from, what they are due to. And who is now managing the situation when there is no director of the public enterprise,” asked Filipche.

Timely access to public information is a human right, he insisted.

“When the system is being managed by a small group of people orbiting Hristijan Mickoski, the citizens are left to their own devices to deal with the consequences of this terrible system,” Filipche concluded. 

Photo: MIA