Skopje, 22 August 2023 (MIA) — If we are considering the country's best interest, in this situation it is to join the EU; the public has said so, it is in their interest to join the EU. The way we join depends on the negotiators' capacity, the capacity of the political parties and the state – as regards the best offer they can negotiate, Media information Agency director Dragan Antonovski said in a Kanal 5 TV interview on the constitutional changes and the latest political developments.

According to him, the EU integration process has started and is ongoing. The parties' "stubborness," however, is not helping the country.

"VMRO–DPMNE says there is nothing to discuss except early elections. SDSM says there is nothing to discuss except joining the EU. These are the usual party positions that stem from the party's interest and not from the state's interest. We have mixed these things up, and this has been going on for years. The state interest has been taken to be the same as the party's interest," Antonovski said.

Answering a question on what was at stake if the constitutional changes were not to be adopted, he said "Macedonia is."

"It's Macedonia that is at stake, and not whether Mickoski or Kovachevski will be in power," he said. He also said the political parties do not understand this.

He said they needed to cooperate. "Why is it a problem to hold a leadership meeting again?"

"I'm talking about teamwork. Let's use our society's capacity," he said.

Even if mistakes had been made and the opposition had not been consulted previously regarding the proposal, Antonovski said, the process should go on.

He said another decade's wait would not serve anyone except "the businessmen who make good money in this shady system".

"We don't have time to wait," he pointed out. "For the citizens' sake."

Asked if the best solution was for a joint SDSM and VMRO–DPMNE government coalition, Antonovski said the idea was feasible if the parties decided to "work in the interest of Macedonia, not in their party interest or their personal interest."

The alternative, he said, was to keep waiting to join the EU for generations.

"The EU is not a magic wand," he noted. "But the EU is a system that has proved it works. Our system proved it doesn't work. Our institutions are captured, in a way, by party armies, which are waiting for one structure to come to power, and then the other," Antonovski said.

Asked if the Albanian political bloc was being radicalized, Antonovski dismissed the notion by saying Balkan politics were rife with manipulations, propaganda, and fearmongering.

"There is no great Albania story any more. There is no great Bulgaria or great Serbia story. There are politicians who have no other concept so they use the concept of ruling by fear." mr/