North Macedonia Opposition Leader Attends Orban’s Victory Party

The leader of North Macedona's main opposition party, VMRO DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, joined the celebrations marking Viktor Orban's victory in Sunday's Hungarian elections at Orban's Fidesz party HQ in Budapest.

"Macedonia has friends" Mickoski posted on Facebook on Sunday, congratulating both Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who coasted to victory in elections on Sunday in Serbia.

"Great victory for Orban. Good luck and much success in the fourth prime ministerial mandate in a row," Mickoski wrote, posting a selfie photo of himself with Orban.

He added: "Congratulations for the convincing victory of our sister party, SNS, in Serbia. Big victory for Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic."

With 98.96 per cent of the vote counted, Orban's Fidesz party easily won a fourth term in office with a crushing victory over the joint six-party opposition.

In Serbia, Vucic won a second presidential election in the first round while his Progressive Party, SNS, easily regained control of parliament with its Socialist Party allies.

Mickoski, together with his party's vice president, Aleksandar Nikolovski, were present at the Fidesz party's HQ on an invitation of Orban himself, VMRO DPMNE said.

The parties have close ties, dating back to when Mickoski's predecessor, the former VMRO DPMNE head and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski was in power in Skopje, from 2006 to 2017.

After his VMRO DPMNE regime was toppled in 2017, after a prolonged political crisis, Gruevski fled to Hungary in 2018 to avoid a jail sentence.

Both Gruevski and Orban share a bitter antipathy to the liberal billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who is of Hungarian origin.

In 2013, North Macedonia, then led by Gruevski, awarded...