“On Monday, he provoked a state of anarchy to hide his incompetence. The reality is that the Government has not recorded any results in any governance area and is now trying to build a justification for early elections. After declaring there would be none, he now needs an alibi at all costs,” Filipce emphasized.

According to him, faced with economic failure, rising prices, and the decline of living standards, Mickoski, instead of offering solutions, prefers to insult and threaten opposition lawmakers.

“Having no results and no way out, Mickoski resorts to insults and intimidation toward MPs in the chamber. He has called citizens the dregs of society, rodents, mediocrities, mollusks; he has chosen a host of derogatory epithets in the past, and now he has started verbally attacking lawmakers. In fact, these insults say more about his character than about anyone else. Is this a person to be called a university professor? Is this a prime minister, the head of the executive?” Filipce asked.

As for Mickoski’s apology, the SDSM leader described it as a staged act without any sense of real responsibility.

“He simply fabricated an illusion, offering an apology in an empty chamber after opposition MPs had withdrawn… so he staged a political show. A shameful, forced ‘apology’. However, this cannot erase his previous insults and behavior,” Filipce concluded.

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In an appearance on “Sitel,” Filipce said: “What is being achieved? A complete defocus. Instead of discussing this government debacle, the isolation from Europe, the pro-Russian influences in our country, the pro-Russian positions of Hristijan Mickoski’s government, personally, the budget debacle, the lack of money for pensions, salaries, social transfers, agriculture and so on, the ultra-expensive loans, including the Hungarian one, we are once again debating ourselves.”

According to him, the budget rebalancing is clear proof of the economic failure of Mickoski’s government.

Filipce stressed: “A major increase in the deficit, no money is foreseen for an adequate increase in pensions, pensioners have been betrayed, nor for a wage increase. There is not enough money for agricultural subsidies. There is not enough money to increase social transfers. Everything is status quo.”

He also assessed that Macedonia is falling behind, while countries in the region are moving forward and making use of billions of euros from European funds, thus losing money, reforms and time.

“Real development comes from non-repayable European Union funds. And that is how all countries have changed and developed. Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia have used billions of euros from Europe,” Filipce said.

In the end, he stressed that the government is boasting about 50 million euros, while Montenegro is securing 3.2 billion euros in grants.

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This announcement was made today by SDSM leader Venko Filipce.

Asked directly about the issue, Filipce said his answer was just as direct: “Regarding the specific question, I will answer specifically: the party bodies will debate this during the coming week.”

In recent months, Petrovska has publicly voiced critical assessments of the situation within the party, saying: “If we do not change, we will disappear.”

Earlier, in response to journalists’ questions, the SDSM leader said this platform is another political project of Hristijan Mickoski, which SDSM describes as “ZNAM 2.0” and which, according to him, has only one goal: to deepen divisions in the opposition and weaken SDSM.

“I will not comment on Hristijan Mickoski’s projects. I regret that some comrades gave up on their party and their ideology. This has been seen before. Such was the ZNAM project, which is already gradually failing. The organizer is the same and the financier is the same,” Filipce said.

He added that he remains ready for any debate and discussion, but stressed that they should take place within the party structures.

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Several well-known names from SDSM’s past were present at the meeting, including former vice president Igor Ivanovski, who leads this grouping, former secretary general Nikolla Qurkchiev, Emilijan Stankovikj, as well as former vice presidents Andrej Petrov and Gordan Georgiev.

Among the current officials, MP Slavjanka Petrovska took part, having run for the post of SDSM chair against Venko Filipce. Also present was the president of the Liberal Democratic Party and MP Monika Zajkova.

The gathering, titled “Conversation for the Future,” was also attended by lawyer Zvonko Davidovikj and political scientist Nenad Markovikj.

Participants assessed that the opposition camp is not built through the creation of new parties, but through an ideological and values-based revolution.

“Macedonia needs a new social contract as the basis for creating broad opposition potential for change. The progressive democratic public needs a genuine and objective debate, which in order to achieve its goal must be free from the usual need to seek the approval of party authorities,” their statement said.

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SDSM leader Venko Filipce announced at today’s press conference that his party will block the proposed Electoral Code, arguing that it contains serious provisions which, according to him, are neither democratic nor European, while leaving room for abuse of the electoral process.

He stated that, although SDSM withdrew from the working group for drafting the Electoral Code, the government continued preparing the law and submitted a version that, according to him, raises serious doubts about the conduct of a fair electoral process.

According to Filipce, one of the most problematic points of this text is the provision for electronic voting for the diaspora, without clearly defined mechanisms for identity verification and without legal guarantees for the security of the entire process.

“This Assembly should not adopt such a law. We will block it because citizens deserve to have a fair and democratic electoral process, and not the controlled one that Hristijan Mickoski began to impose by following the example of his mentor, undoubtedly an idol, Nikola Gruevski. We will block this law in the Assembly,” said Filipce.

Filipce clarified that the reason for SDSM’s withdrawal from the working group was related to the way the government had earlier adopted the Law on Government, without reaching consensus with the opposition and by changing the rules for the functioning of the Przhino government.

“The introduction of the Przhino government a decade ago, and then again in 2018, was done by consensus, at that time with the presence and active participation of the international community, our strategic partners, the United States of America and the European Union. And now the government has changed the Law on Government in a sneaky way, in the same autocratic and regime-style manner as 10 years ago,” said Filipce.

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“This is only part of the farce, the circus he is making because he has no answers to the real questions we ask him every day, the ones I asked him today in the parliamentary questions session. Mickoski did not answer a single question. I dictated numbers to him that he later manipulated in his response. And when he has no answer to that, why he did nothing good for the state, did not improve the quality of life, blocked the country, he uses such threats. But these are very serious threats,” Filipçe said on Telma.

According to him, it is unacceptable for a prime minister to address the public in a language that does not conform to democratic standards and political culture.

“Is there any prime minister in Europe who behaves like Mickoski? Is there any prime minister in a developed democracy who allows himself to behave like this? First of all, toward every person. Not only toward the chairman of another party or an MP. What does that look like? And his other vocabulary — kitten, scum, and so on,” Filipçe said.

He added that such communication not only belittles political opponents, but also humiliates citizens, while at the same time displaying authoritarian political models from the region.

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