Skopje, 26 December 2025 (MIA) — There will be a serious crisis and a serious rise in poverty in 2026, much worse than in 2025, SDSM leader Venko Filipche told a press conference Friday. 

According to him, the state will need to borrow at least an additional EUR 2 billion for expenses and not for capital investments. He also predicted that inflation would be difficult to control and with electricity prices rising, all prices would rise.

"Citizens will spend more to get the same or even less because prices will be higher," the opposition leader said. 

"Foreign investments are no longer growing," he added, pointing out that many foreign investors may even leave the country because of the business climate in 2026. 

He said that when SDSM was in power, "foreign investments were around EUR 800-900 million and capital investments were realized close to 80-90%. 

"They're not even 50 now," he said. He added the current government was not investing in any capital projects. "There is nothing that will increase growth, that will increase productivity."

He also told the press that VMRO-DPMNE was making attempts to orchestrate "some kind of destruction of SDSM on the inside."

He said the ruling party was doing it "just as we began revealing all the corrupt deals of the government, just as we began to expose their treachery and their fake patriotism." 

"It is obvious they are willing to employ any tactic to silence us, in their series of attempts to propose that there is some kind of destruction of SDSM on the inside," he said.

According to Filipche, this was "a synchronized and time-coordinated action" to coincide with SDSM's raising serious questions about crime and corruption in the government.

He said former SDSM members who had abandoned the party to join "the treacherous ZNAM, are now suddenly resurfacing at this moment, becoming active and loud on social networks."

He said no one will stop the SDSM from fighting for justice. 

"We will return power to the people. We are determined to do it. There is a new force in SDSM," he said. 

"The fight has begun, the end is in sight," he said. "Everyone who is involved in corruption and crime will be held accountable."

He also claimed that Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski's government was close to Serbia's SNS. "This government's cooperation with the Serbian government of Aleksandar Vučić and the SNS, that is, with him personally, is obvious." 

According to Filipche, Mickoski "wants to imitate President Vučić, in his movements, in his posture, in the way he makes statements and in his political concepts."

"What Vučić is doing in Serbia, Prime Minister Mickoski is trying to do here: Be the one person speaking for all politics and the entire party, while everyone else follows his orders."

Recalling the events in Serbia after the Novi Sad tragedy and the protests in its wake, the SDSM leader said "dialogue there is almost impossible, and society is deeply divided." 

"In Serbia, this has escalated to the level of conflict. The country is facing economic collapse and complete isolation from Europe. The same dangerous matrix is ​​being applied in Macedonia today," he said.

Mickoski's government, backed by President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, was merely looking for excuses to keep the country isolated from the European Union, Filipche said.

"This government, obviously supported by our head of state – as we gathered from her annual address — has certain demands toward the EU that obviously cannot be met by every European official. All major European countries' leaders have made it clear that what is being demanded is practically impossible," the opposition leader said. mr/