SDSM is expanding the fight with one of the few mayors of sizable cities that it won in the latest local elections. Kriva Palanka Mayor Sasko Mitovski endorsed the plan that US investors develop a large antimony mine near the city, but SDSM leader Venko Filipce announced that he will call for a local referendum to block the development.

SDS and Venko Filipce came out against their own Mayor and want to prevent the opening of a mine in Kriva Palanka, despite the position of this rare SDSM Mayor that the mine will be opened with full respect for the environmental standards. SDS and Filipce lack the democratic capacity to listen to the well grounded arguments of the Mayor, and just want to oppose any proposal. This again shows that SDS and Filipce don’t want Macedonia to grow and develop, and to see Macedonian citizens live better lives, said VMRO-DPMNE in a statement.