Mickoski on Alta Bank: We will save the bank, LSDM’s scenarios will not materialize

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister, Hristijan Mickoski, said today that Alta Bank would be saved and would continue operating. He was responding to journalists’ questions about the opposition’s call for the Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation and how Macura obtained a license.

Mickoski said he had personally devoted himself to the bank’s situation over the past few days. According to him, there is reason for optimism: a financial institution will become the owner of Alta Bank, so it will not go bankrupt. He described this development as important for creditors and everyone with ties to the bank. The prime minister said the opposition, which he said had campaigned daily by warning that the bank would go bankrupt, would be disappointed.

As for the call for an investigation, Mickoski said he fully agreed that the Prosecutor’s Office should open a case and launch an investigation to see what it concludes. However, he called the opposition’s claims in recent days “political theater and folklore.”

Speaking about Macura, the prime minister said he had met all the legal requirements and criteria to operate in the country’s market. Mickoski noted that the Austrian regulator had previously allowed Macura to become the owner of a portion of the shares in Adiko Bank and that he had entered into commercial and business relations with Raiffeisen Bank, which he described as one of the largest financial institutions in the region.

According to Mickoski, the government cannot decide who is allowed to operate as long as the requirements and rules are met. He accused the opposition LSDM of allowing only a few companies close to it and to the family of the time to operate when it was in power. The prime minister said his government’s approach is to allow anyone to operate in the country on the basis of the free market, democratic principles and commercial relations.

Mickoski added that he had described this as an imported case from the outset. According to him, the opposition wants its dark scenarios to come true, while the government wants to save the bank and enable it to continue operating. He expressed confidence that the outcome would become clear at the end of the process.