Skopje, 6 May 2024 (MIA) - SDSM-backed presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski held his final rally in Skopje on Monday, where he said he is certain that they will win a double victory at the May 8 double elections. 

Pendarovski urged the citizens to vote, warning that if VMRO-DPMNE manages to win power, "the consequences could be irreparable, both in the mid and long-term". 

"When you ask them what we will do with our NATO membership, which they themselves highlight in their manifesto as the greatest value and contribution for the security of Macedonia, they say 'we will respect the Prespa Agreement, but we will never say North'," Pendarovski said. 

They, Pendarovski stressed, have not a single specific answer regarding the country's biggest strategic issues and dilemmas. 

"They say they wouldn't change the European negotiating framework, it would remain as it is, however they would ask in return for Bulgaria to implement the decisions of the Court in Strasbourg. When you tell the lady that it isn't possible, ever since the foundation of the EU, for a candidate state to condition a member state, which is a basic rule in all international organizations, she just rolls her eyes and says nothing," Pendarovski said.

Touching upon Siljanovska-Davkova's statements that the Ohrid Framework Agreement has ran its course, Pendarovski said the country can only continue to exist as a society of fully equal citizens. 

SDSM leader and the party's list principal in the first electoral district, Dimitar Kovachevski, in his address at the rally said the May 8 double elections are the last call for Europe and something they won't give up on. 

"Just as we didn't give up over the past seven years when we faced many challenges. When we fought against all the crises, the pandemic, inflation, energy issues. You yourselves know that we had many rises and many falls. But in not a single moment did we give up, surrender or withdraw. We were side by side with the citizens," the SDSM leader said. 

Kovachevski stressed that solidarity, togetherness, the social state and justice were the things that helped the country rise from the chaos brought about by the crises, but they, he said, also made it possible for the country to move forward and achieve excellent results.

At the end of his address, Kovachevski pointed to the country's membership in the United Nations; becoming an EU candidate state; and NATO membership, as difficult but correct decisions made while SDSM was in power, and stressed that SDSM, alongside the citizens, will also lead the country to EU membership.

Photo: Pendarovski's campaign staff/SDSM