Mickoski to NAI: Brvenica voters will act with reason; I will wait for congratulations on November 2

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told parliament that voters in Brvenica will decide “with reason” in the upcoming second round of the local elections and that he expects opponents to call to congratulate them after the vote.

Answering a question from MP Skender Redzepi about the atmosphere ahead of the repeat vote and the ruling party's ratings, Mickoski argued that the recent extraordinary ballot confirmed his party's prior strength in the municipality.

Mickoski repeats vote-count figures and recalls last year's result

“In Brvenica it is strange how you celebrate defeat, because the candidate you supported lost. The candidate of VMRO-DPMNE and the coalition won nearly three thousand votes, and the candidate of the National Alliance for Integration (NAI) had about 900 votes fewer, which means that candidate lost the elections,” Mickoski said, citing the margin from the earlier round.

He also recalled that in last year’s local elections residents of Brvenica gave their support to VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate Jovica Ilievski, who unexpectedly died several months ago, prompting the extraordinary vote.

Mickoski added harsh criticism of the previous two decades of local governance and said about ten thousand people, of whom 90 percent were Albanians, left the municipality. “And now you go to Europe and around the world, you kneel and call them to return to Brvenica to vote because those kaurive must not win and have their own mayor in Brvenica. You are looking for the same people who fled because of your twenty years of rule in the Government,” he said.

He recalled messages he has given to residents urging them to resist ethnic division. “When I was in Tenovo I saw two houses of worship, one mosque and one church, side by side. There you will see how Muslim and Orthodox Christian believers shake hands before entering because they are neighbours. When the first round of the extraordinary local elections ended, unfortunately triggered by a tragic event, namely the premature death of Mayor Jovica Ilievski, people from the NAI coalition came out and called for ethnic voting, while from VMRO-DPMNE no one asked to vote ethnically. On the contrary, my message was, they will want to divide you on an ethnic basis, but do not allow that because you will again be next to each other,” Mickoski said.

He concluded by saying that on 2 November he will be waiting for congratulations for their victory in Brvenica.

Photo: press material from the event