SDSM: Hristijan Mickoski’s government borrowed nearly €4 billion in two years

SDSM said at a press conference that the Government of North Macedonia’s recent borrowing of €1.3 billion pushed the total new debt accumulated over the past two years to nearly €4 billion. The party’s spokesperson and member of its Executive Board, Bogdanka Kuzeska, charged that the government led by Hristijan Mickoski generated roughly 30 percent of the country’s entire public debt since independence in just two years.

Claims of an empty treasury and a recurring deficit

According to SDSM, state coffers are “completely empty” and the budget deficit regularly exceeds 4 percent of GDP, which the party says breaches the Budget Law's 3 percent maximum limit. Kuzeska warned that those figures signal unsustainable public finances.

Kuzeska also contrasted current interest costs with those under previous administrations: while earlier governments paid about €120 million for interest even during the COVID and energy crises, she said the present administration now pays €350 million a year in interest.

As part of her criticism Kuzeska accused the government of using loans for partisan enrichment, saying: "With Mickoski the loans have only one purpose: siphoning money from the budget into party criminal tenders and filling private pockets," she said.

She added that basic family expenditures for a four-person household have risen by 9,000 denars in the past two years, while the minimum wage increased by only 3,500 denars. Kuzeska argued this left low-wage workers worse off and accused Mickoski of refusing to raise the minimum wage to €600.

“The budget today is about €7 billion — twice the €3.5 billion in 2017, and nothing twice as good has happened. Mickoski has indebted generations. He has indebted those to come. If they had one good achievement, one serious project or an improvement in the economy — maybe they could speak. But there is none. +Not only is there no project — there is no money for citizens,” Kuzeska said, asserting that the borrowed funds are not being invested in capital projects but are instead ending up in what she called party tenders.

She concluded by warning of future accountability: "There will come a time when this criminal group will be held accountable, and the money will be returned to the citizens of Macedonia," Kuzeska said.

Photo: press material from the event