Chisinau, 1 June 2023 (MIA) - Elections in the country are defined by law and Constitution. The presidential elections are scheduled for the second half of March while the parliamentary in the second half of June. We are constrantly talking about rule of law and democracy and this means that elections are held when scheduled, as is the case in practically all European countries, said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski on Thursday.

PM Kovachevski, who was speaking at a press conference after the Second European Political Community Summit in Moldova's Chisinau, referred to the timing of the next parliamentary elections considering the statement of VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski that the party would not support the constitutional amendments.

On the coming meeting with Mickoski, Kovachevski said it would focus on decisions that have to be taken in order to realize the country's strategic objective, since political parties and lawmakers are responsible before the citizens for decisions that ensure a better future and a better living standard for current and future generations.

"EU membership is a goal that citizens want to see achieved. I have said on previous occasions that our standard was better than the one of Slovakia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and all countries of the Warsaw Pact but now it is the opposite and our citizens go and work in those countries. The sole reason for this is that these countries joined the EU and are part of the Union's single market, the largest and richest market in the world," said Kovachevski.

Asked if he was an optimist that the constitutional revision process would be successful, the PM said he was a rational optimist and worked on reaching the goal of North Macedonia becoming an EU member.

If the constitutional amendments fail, he added, we will have the same thing as in the period between 2006 and 2016, namely isolation instead of integration, no infrastructure, captured state.

Photo: MIA archive