North Macedonia election campaign under the shadow of wiretapping and insults
Express newspaper
06/09/2025 15:05
Illegal wiretapping, scandals, insults and hate speech have overshadowed the debate on real solutions to citizens’ problems, on the eve of local elections in North Macedonia, which will be held on October 19, Gazeta Express reports from REL.
Accusations of misconduct among candidates for mayor of Skopje dominate the Albanian political bloc.
For example, Deputy Prime Minister Izet Mexhiti has accused former Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani of maintaining contacts with former Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who is in Budapest.
The ruling majority has also accused Osmani of misusing 1.8 million euros from the state budget for the cleaning and painting of the hall where the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe summit was held, by awarding the contract to a company that finances his party, the Democratic Union for Integration.
Osmani said that the tender was conducted legally and that neither the Prosecution nor the Commission for the Prevention of Corruption found any violations.
DUI Chairman Ali Ahmeti has rejected, as he called it, political manipulations over the alleged desire of Albanians to divide North Macedonia.
He said that if such a goal had existed, it would have been achieved in 2001, when the Albanians had 15 armed fighters.
A few days before the official start of the election campaign, the Government accuses the current opposition of having interfered in the intelligence system, illegally following and listening to the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, during the period 2019–2024.
He raised the same accusations when he was in opposition and is repeating them now that he is in power.
Speaking at a government session this week, Mickoski said the country is facing a new scandal: illegal wiretapping and massive misuse of the system.
The former director of the National Security Agency (ANB), Viktor Dimovski, has denied the allegations on the social network Facebook and has requested that the information be declassified.
The Social Democratic opposition has challenged the Government to adopt a joint resolution on the integration of North Macedonia into the European Union and to define political red lines.
The leader of the opposition Social Democratic League, Venko Filipçe, has announced that he will publish a resolution on European integration, in which national red lines will be drawn.
“Neither candidates for office nor voters distinguish between local, parliamentary and presidential elections, which is why we have all kinds of topics and narratives – even those about EU integration – in the context of local elections, like the ones that are coming up,” political scientist Blagojce Atanasovski tells Radio Free Europe.
Insults and accusations from all sides
Before the local elections, politics has focused more on personal attacks and topics that are not directly related to the daily problems of citizens.
Politicians constantly use offensive words, such as “criminal,” “blind listener,” and “fraud,” to attack each other.
The opposition Social Democratic League accuses the candidate for mayor of Skopje, Orce Gjeorigijevski, of working exclusively on the orders of VMRO-DPMNE leader Mickoski, because, as he claims, he is keeping quiet about illegal construction in the city.
Other mayoral candidates have reacted to the harsh language on social media, saying that negative campaigns and personal attacks against them are being amplified by “party militants.”
Why does negative rhetoric dominate?
Political analyst Xhelal Neziri says that the reason why the so-called negative campaign prevails is that political rivals do not offer real and credible alternatives for the elections.
“Despite efforts to present beautiful projects and effective solutions to citizens’ problems, it is difficult to convince voters that they will be implemented. Most candidates have political experience – which now prevents them from convincing the public that they will keep their promises,” explains Neziri.
He adds that the lack of trust among voters – that something can be changed, a long-standing problem can be solved or the municipality modernized – forces parties to focus on negative campaigns.
“This form of negative propaganda is driven by the motto ‘I am bad, but my opponent is a disaster,'” he adds.
Political scientist Atanasovski says this approach is part of Macedonian “political folklore.”
“Citizens are simply used to this type of politics and, unfortunately, politicians serve them,” he says.
Is there room for positive campaigning?
Some of the candidates have already started an informal campaign, with promises of a better life.
“I think that even candidates who are not new to politics have the potential to run a positive campaign and spread optimistic energy, because not all of them have broken their promises in the past,” says Neziri.
According to Atanasovski, not everything is so “black” in this election campaign.
He says that there are mayoral candidates who are running a positive campaign and who base their promises on the needs of citizens in the municipalities.
Local elections in North Macedonia were announced on August 9.
The first round of voting will be held on October 19th and the second round two weeks later, on November 2nd.
These will be the eighth local elections in a row since North Macedonia gained independence.