Gradsko, 29 September 2025 (MIA) - VMRO-DPMNE leader and Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Monday he expects a peaceful election campaign ahead of the local elections, adding that there are only two options at these elections – between the coalition led by his party and “the coalition of SDSM, DUI, and Levica”.

“What we will offer in our campaign messages will be projects, vision, how we plan to develop Macedonia,” Mickoski said.

The Prime Minister said opposition parties SDSM, DUI, and Levica would “continue to send confusing, false, and inaccurate information, with some sending messages that maybe would’ve worked in the 19th century”.

“I expect a peaceful campaign. I expect a campaign in which the opposition will fabricate, will send messages that are confusing and false and inaccurate. Today for example, once again the media in Macedonia and statistics from Europe – Eurostat – refute the opposition’s claims that wages haven't increased and state that Macedonia ranks sixth among EU countries and EU candidates over the past year, comparing July last year to July this year. All their messages are based on lies, fabrications, and manipulations, that’s the reality. And that part of the opposition still lives in the 1990s, three, four, five decades ago. Messages that might have worked at the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th century,” Mickoski said.

Mickoski said there is no third option and “anyone who thinks that by staying at home, by abstaining, they will punish someone, show defiance or send some kind of message is mistaken. In that case they are directly voting for Venko Filipche, for Ali Ahmeti, and for Dimitar Apasiev”.  

“One option is the SDSM, DUI, and Levica coalition, the Venko Filipche – Ali Ahmeti – Dimitar Apasiev coalition, even if I were to say Zaev I wouldn’t have made much of a mistake because he is the guru in the background of this coalition, and he is the path that we saw for seven years. A path of crime, corruption, national degradation, lack of work, lack of delivery. The other option is VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition. It is what we, alongside the support of the citizens, have been doing for the past 15-16 months. And if they are satisfied with our work, I call on them to voluntarily show up at the polls on October 19 and vote for the option they thing is better,” Mickoski said. 

Photo: Government