Struga, 2 August 2021 (MIA) – VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski called on parties and stakeholders to form a bloc against the government in a speech delivered to mark Republic Day – Ilinden. “Ilinden had united generations of Macedonians for freedom. Here, I call for bloc of unity against Zaev and toppling the worst government the country has ever had,” Mickoski said at an annual event in the village of Tashmarunishta near Struga. Ilinden, he said, is our backbone our house is founded on and our ordeal, without it we wouldn’t have had freedom. “VMRO-DPMNE has the support of the people and is about to be victorious,” the party leader said adding the opposition party has been significantly leading in opinion polls ahead of the local elections in October. Commenting on President Stevo Pendarovski’s decision not to deliver an address at Ilinden’s central event in Mechkin Kamen, Mickoski called him “the point of discord rather than the point of unity.” “I’ve chosen to be here, with the people,” he said after declining Pendarovski’s invitation to attend the central event as a show of unity. The country, he stressed, belongs in the European Union family and the mini-Schengen, recently launched by PM Zaev, is yet another defeat for the country after failing to meet its strategic goal of joining the Union. “Macedonia belongs to everyone. I will make the country for all citizens, not only for a few from the ruling administration. Macedonia has a future and I see that future in a new generation of politicians, who will save the country from the abyss, left there by the government,” Mickoski said.