Last year’s favourites nowhere to be found: VMRO-DPMNE comes out with new players


If the presidential elections were held last spring, VMRO-DPMNE would have considered whether to run with Trajko Slaveski or Zoran Stavreski. The two economists had the highest ratings in the internal polls in April and May, and right behind them was Srdjan Kerim. Nine months later, none of them are in the game for the successor to Gjorge Ivanov. Slaveski is a member of the Executive Committee of the party, and he is preparing for a new post in another government headed by VMRO-DPMNE, Stavreski is working in the United States, and Kerim is enjoying Opatija. Treasury finance and foreign ministers were also mentioned in the SPO investigations, but are likely to rid themselves of persecution after the Supreme Court’s decision to halt the Special Prosecutors and the efforts to prove their guilt.

Ten days for presentation

Today’s picture in VMRO-DPMNE shows that the most serious candidate for their representative in the presidential elections on April 21 and May 5 is Professor Gordana Siljanovska, followed by MP Vlatko Gjorcev. Six more nominations arrived to the party headquarters. A party committee is “going through” their files and analyzes whether they meet all the necessary conditions to enter the official race. Starting tomorrow, those who have gone through the filter will get ten days to present their programme and vision to party members in municipal committees across the country. At the convention in Struga scheduled for February 16, about 530 delegates will select the winner.

VMRO-DPMNE did not want to announce the names of the candidates until the procedure was completed, but today the cards are expected to be put on the table. We learn that among the reporters is not even the former minister for culture, Ganka Cvetanova, who in the past period had several notable performances, above all on social networks where she criticized the policies of the government and moves of Elizabeta Kanceska, who overnight shifted from one side to the other and voted for the constitutional changes. Former Skopje Mayor Koce Trajanovski has not disclosed, nor denied whether he submitted his nomination for the presidential race.

Mickoski: I don’t have a favorite candidate

Filip Petrovski, meanwhile, is confident that it has long been decided for Siljanovska to win the party selection, due to which he plans to collect 10,000 signatures and independently run for president of the state. He and Janko Bacev from “United Macedonia”, as representatives of the “Macedonia blocks” movement, sent letters to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which they asked their countries not to sign Macedonia’s Accession Protocol in NATO. They explain that our country should not be admitted to the military alliance under its new name, which was not accepted by the majority of citizens, and President Ivanov has not signed the law.

“The agreement is contrary to domestic and international law, which paves the way for the annulment of the new legitimate government coming. Under the Vienna Convention on Contract Law, the validity of an international agreement, which means free consent without threats and blackmail, requires two general conditions to be met. Firstly, to be concluded by the competent authorities and, secondly, there is an agreed object of bargaining. The puppet government in Skopje cannot be considered as authorized to conclude the contract because it is elected by a parliamentary assembly chaired by an illegal president, and such agreements cannot be concluded by the government, but the president of the state has jurisdiction. The name and identity agreement is an illegal object, since according to general international law and United Nations law, the name of a country is a matter of internal circumstances. Therefore, we are delivering the will of the Macedonian people and the majority of Macedonian citizens, the permanent representative of your country in NATO not to sign the accession protocol and not be ratified in your assembly,” wrote Filip Petrovski and Janko Bacev.

VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski and Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski left for Brussels to attend the political assembly of the European People’s Party. On the sidelines of the session, it is expected to hold meetings with MEPs and EU representatives, who are part of the “people”.
“Mickoski will discuss the situation in the country, the worrying situation with the trampling rights and freedoms, growing corruption, as well as supporting the integration process and the reforms that need to be implemented.” say from the party.

As of tomorrow, the party will completely focus on the internal election for the party’s presidential candidate.

“I will support the candidate that will be selected by the delegates in Struga”, responds Mickoski to the question whether he has his own favorite among the candidates.

Goran Adamovski