Zhernovski: Government has no results in any area, so Mickoski talks about "Talog"

Andrej Zhernovski accused Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski on Thursday of using a divisive campaign called "Talog" instead of delivering results across government, saying the tactic resurfaced during the country's recent national celebrations.

Zhernovski links rhetoric to failures in public services and the economy

Speaking at a press conference, Zhernovski — a member of the Executive Board of SDSM — said the same pattern appeared during Ilinden and the Independence Day commemoration. "Instead of unity, instead of calling for togetherness and celebrating statehood, the 'Talog' campaign of Prime Minister Mickoski was again activated," he said.

He argued the campaign aims to sow division and hate among citizens and compared its method to the darkest chapters of the country's past. "The message is perfectly clear. Operation 'Talog', which actually serves to divide and sow among citizens, sowing hatred and which Mickoski has been conducting practically from the first day of his mandate, is dangerous by its nature and by its basis and it functions according to the recipe of Vancho Mihajlov and the darkest periods of Macedonian history," Zhernovski said.

Zhernovski listed several incidents he said illustrated the climate created by that rhetoric: banning discussion of migrants in Parliament, a physical attack on young people in Novo Selo who held banners to warn about drinking water problems in Gostivar, and the recent summons of an SDSM adviser to a police station after he defended farmers' policies on Facebook and criticized Mickoski.

He asked why Mickoski persists with terms such as "talog" and "tinja" and answered: "Because there are literally no results in any field. Neither in the economy, nor in healthcare, nor in agriculture, nor in education, nor in social policy, nor in the country's European path. Literally in every area we have a collapse. So, the answer is very clear. When the results in every area are literally 'tinja' and when your entire prime ministerial term is literally 'tinja', then the only thing left to speak about is 'tinja' and 'talog'. Fortunately, citizens have read that."

Zhernovski also raised concrete social and economic figures to underline his critique: "The consumer basket has reached 90,000 denars with rent. The minimum wage is 26,000 denars and with that amount we are nailed to the bottom of Europe. Prices have gone through the ceiling. Citizens' living standards are falling, people live increasingly harder. Mickoski's debt, i.e. Mickoski's policy with which he has indebted this country, amounts to 4 billion euros in just two years. Mickoski has already lost 150,000 votes, but after all we see this will be followed by an even greater fall in his personal rating and, of course, the rating of the party and the government. Patriotic themes clearly no longer pass. They have, after two years, been read by citizens and that is why this 'Talog', 'tinja' campaign is intensifying."

Photo: press material from the event