Mickoski: SDSM stoking hysteria and deterring buyers for Alta Bank

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski publicly addressed the controversy surrounding Alta Bank today, urging depositors not to be alarmed by what he called deliberate panic being spread by the opposition SDSM. He spoke to reporters after a joint press appearance with EU Ambassador Michalis Rokas.

Two possible outcomes, government says

Mickoski accused SDSM of intentionally generating fear to score political points and said the opposition's behaviour was deterring potential buyers for the troubled lender. He called on the Public Prosecutor's Office to examine what he described as the criminal offence of sabotage.

"They made the same hysteria when Viktor Orbán lost the elections in Hungary, and the hysteria continued after Aleksandar Vučić's defeat in Serbia. So, I am trying to portray the character of our opposition, which will not stop creating panic, unrest, hysteria regarding the Alta Bank case. They care least about the depositors and creditors of Alta Bank, but think that in this way they will achieve political benefit and factor themselves into the Macedonian political scene because they are burdened by internal divisions," Mickoski said.

He urged prosecutors to act: "It is appropriate, according to the Criminal Code, for the Public Prosecutor's Office to deal with the crime of sabotage that the opposition is committing, which consciously undermines the Constitution and the state order by spreading untruths, creating unrest and thus putting citizens in a state of insecurity and fear. This criminal offense, I remind you, is punishable by imprisonment of at least three years and under that Criminal Code which they amended in 2023," he added.

Mickoski outlined what he presented as the two realistic scenarios for Alta Bank's fate: finding a buyer or, failing that, bankruptcy. He insisted depositors would be protected even in the latter case and repeated figures he said his team had verified.

"According to our checks, 95–96 percent of depositors have savings deposits up to 30,000 euros; they are guaranteed in full. Be calm because down to the cent, down to the denar, they will be returned. The others who will enter the bankruptcy estate, and those are a few hundred, should also be calm, because the bank's assets are much larger than its claims, perhaps two to three times larger. So, I appeal to citizens: be calm, please. Do not fall under the hysteria and lies of the opposition," Mickoski said.

On the sale option, he said: "The first scenario is to secure a buyer, which will be very difficult because you see what they (SDSM) are doing: they hold press conferences in front of the National Bank and are deterring potential buyers who would consolidate the bank," and accused the opposition of hampering those talks.

Defending the transaction behind the bank's change of ownership, Mickoski described how, he said, a public auction of shares by private shareholders resulted in the purchase by the owner of Alta Bank Serbia and later the rebranding of Stopanska banka AD Bitola as Alta Bank Macedonia. "At a public auction, the shareholders of the bank, who are private individuals, and with whom the Government neither has nor wants to have a relationship, sold the shares to the owner of Alta Bank Serbia and thus became owners of Stopanska banka AD Bitola, which they then rebranded into Alta Bank Macedonia," he said.

Photo: Vlada