VMRO-DPMNE-backed independent candidate Danela Arsovska won the mayoral post in Skopje and will be the first woman mayor of the Macedonian capital after a “gladiatorial battle of fake news”, as she herself said of the ruling SDSM party that she and her husband Angel has Bulgarian passports.
At a press conference days before the second round of local elections, an SDSM MP stated that “Daniela Arsovska has Bulgarian citizenship” and that “she had a reserve homeland for ten years” and that she is an honorary consul of Hungary, the country where she fled. former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.
Arsovska rejected this statement and pointed out that her name was not Daniela, but Danela, and she was named after her grandfather Dane, who is Macedonian. “I was born in Skopje as Danela Jovanovska, I have been Arsovska for 20 years, I have always lived in Skopje, I have not changed my name,” she said.
SDSM accused Arsovska of deceiving voters by presenting herself as an independent candidate, when in fact “the entire VMRO-DPMNE regime” was behind it. According to the ruling party, “it is obvious that Arsovska is dependent on other countries for reasons and considerations that she must personally communicate to the citizens.”
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev also said that Arsovska’s Bulgarian citizenship was “a political, ethical, dishonest problem” as she hid it and tried to manipulate voters. He called on Arsovska to step down if he “loves at least a little Skopje and Skopje” and vowed to resign if his party loses in Skopje.
Danela Arsovska, born in 1979, is an economist by education. In 2014 she was elected chairman of the Macedonian Chambers of Commerce, in 2015 she became chairman of the Macedonian Union of Employers’ Organizations. Arsovska has a rich international career, and at the national level since 2016 she is a representative in the National Council for European Integration.
Danela Arsovska says that the difficult battle with cancer and the struggle for her son’s life have shaped her as a strong person. “The struggle for your life and the life of your child is at one time too heavy a burden, but now I say that if I do not lose this battle, I will never lose,” Arsovska said in an interview with the Women’s Store recently.
“My vision for Skopje is a city that preserves traditions, but also looks to the future, Skopje as an ecologically clean city, without transport clutter, a city that all Skopje deserves, with quality and cultural life. A clean city with quality urban infrastructure, where “Our children will live breathing fresh air. A city that is worth living in and that we will be proud of. That is what I want to achieve in the next four years,” said Danela Arsovska.
