Skopje, 4 April 2024 (MIA) – VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition kicked off the presidential campaign with a mass rally on Thursday evening in front of the Government in Skopje. At the rally, Presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, said the fundamental values of the country’s constitutional order must be respected.

“Even in the relations with countries much bigger than us, even with our allies such as the EU, we, the real Europeans, have an obligation to remind of the fundamental values, because without them there can be no democracy, no prosperity, no peace. The ‘EU NATO, NATO EU’ rhetoric won’t take us to Europe. Only by respecting and practicing the values, and only by becoming a normal, standard country can we be in the EU,” Siljanovska-Davkova said.

According to VMRO-DPMNE’s presidential candidate, her opponents imagine EU membership as “climbing on a train to Brussels, but no,” she said, “Brussels should come here”.

“Over the past years, they didn’t implement anything from the so-called Copenhagen Criteria. We will do that. When you fail to do anything, and when you are in a state of confusion, you are left with nothing but to sing in unison about something you don’t believe in. There’s no need to repeat something which doesn’t exist,” Siljanovska-Davkova said.

She said her opponents promise reforms, which, she said, means they failed to implement them. “When you fail to do what you’ve promised, you need to leave,” Siljanovska-Davkova said.

Presenting her aims, VMRO-DPMNE’s presidential candidate said she would respect the government and cooperate with it.

“Sometimes I will advise, sometimes I will criticize. I will be my own head. If the executive branch contains two heads, then they must cooperate. I won’t go abroad without building consensus over the most important national issues and issues of the state. I will respect Parliament as a legislative body, but if I notice that they deviate from the Constitution and the legislation, I will request an address in order to warn them. If that doesn’t work either, then I will make use of my veto powers. I won’t allow for diplomats who tarnish Macedonia’s pride to parade abroad. On the contrary, we will be represented by the best people and people with the most expertise,” the presidential candidate said.

VMRO-DPMNE leader and the party’s list principal in the first electoral district, Hristijan Mickoski, in his address at the rally assessed that “the people are coming for what’s theirs, for what has been taken from them.”

“They are coming for Macedonia, for great changes with which we will show everyone that we won’t give Macedonia away, that we are all Macedonia’s strength,” Mickoski said.

According to Mickoski, VMRO-DPMNE is stronger than it has ever been, the party is “united and has a clear, joint goal,” he said.

“They can’t destroy the idea. Our idea is called Macedonia. Let’s give it back to the people, and take it away from the hundreds of DUI officials and their servants from SDSM. Kovachevski’s issue is that he handed the country to Ahmeti on a silver platter,” Mickoski said.

The VMRO-DPMNE leader said the party would like to form a coalition with the opposition parties of the Albanians but also called for mutual respect.

Photo: VMRO-DPMNE