Venko Filipche: Citizens should decide in a referendum whether they want mines near their homes

Venko Filipche, leader of SDSM, urged that residents be given the right to decide in a referendum whether mines should be established near their homes, after Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski presented the proposed antimony mine near Kriva Palanka in Washington as a strategic project with the United States.

Local consent, Filipche says, must come first

Filipche told reporters that national resources are not the private property of any single politician and that such decisions require public consent. He accused the prime minister of preparing to "sell off" the country by promoting mining projects without asking affected communities.

"Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announces the selling off of the country. Yesterday I heard him, he says how we were rich in ore, hoping to attract investors who will build mines here. I want to tell him clearly and loudly — he must not sell off the national wealth. First, the citizens must be asked about mines," Filipche said at the press conference.

He stressed that the right to directly decide on whether mines operate in one’s immediate surroundings is especially important given existing problems with water quality and safety at several locations in the country. Filipche asked who will guarantee that antimony extraction will be safe and that antimony will not end up in the water in the future.

"The prime minister has no right, when there is now a complete debacle in the field of economic policies, to think that he can sell off the country. That is not his private property. The fact that he currently leads the Government does not mean he should dispose of the country's national wealth to save himself from bad economic policies. Citizens in the environments where they live must vote in a referendum whether they want mines built close to their homes or not," he added.

Filipche also criticized announced plans to build data centers, alleging that the authorities arrange such projects to serve personal business interests. He said SDSM is not opposed to technological progress but opposes private business interests of the government and the prime minister that operate to the detriment of citizens.

Photo: SDSM