Skopje, 26 April 2024 (MIA) - As a member of the Coalition for European Future I can’t say how many seats in Parliament we will win, the citizens will ultimately decide. I believe that this coalition will be the winning coalition and it will conclude the Euro-integration process by 2030, because it demonstrated that it knows how to work, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Monika Zajkova, told MIA in an interview. 

LDP, which recently marked its 27th anniversary, has three candidates vying for a seat in Parliament. Zajkova, who is the list co-principal in the first electoral district alongside SDSM leader Dimitar Kovachevski, said she expects all three of the party’s candidates to win a seat. 

“As a coalition I can’t say how many seats in Parliament we will win, the citizens will ultimately decide. I believe that this coalition will be the winning coalition because it demonstrated it knows how to work. Yes, those that work also make mistakes. However, we don’t remain silent over our mistakes, we recognize them and apologize to the citizens, we know where our anomalies are and what our focus should be in the coming period. LDP has three candidates. It is my honor to be a co-principal in the first electoral distrcit alongside SDSM leader Dimitar Kovachevski. We have a candidate in electoral district 4 – the recognized, esteemed heart surgeon Ilija Neshkovski, as well as the party’s secretary general, Bobi Mojsovski, who is running in electoral district 5. I sincerely believe that LDP will have three MPs in this parliamentary composition, as opposed to the two right now, because together with this coalition we've achieved many things. We showed that we can care for all, young and old, that we can manage the crisis, launch the energy transition in the country, so there is a certain continuity and above all there is also the fight for membership in the European Union,” Zajkova said. 

Zajkova said she has no ambitions of personally becoming a part of the government composition if the coalition wins the elections. In terms of how many ministerial posts LDP expects, Zajkova stressed that this will be subject to future negotiations and agreements between the coalition partners but assured that the party has skilled people who would fit in any ministry in the government. 

Regarding the main points of LDP’s election manifesto and how many of their goals are aligned with their coalition partner, Zajkova said in the past they’ve acted together in Parliament and implemented numerous policies, pointing to the subsidized student meal and increase in funds for equal regional development as examples, which, she said, were LDP’s ideas. However, she stressed, the highest goal is membership in the European Union. 

A significant portion of LDP’s manifesto titled “Everyone Matters”, which the party promoted in November, has been incorporated into the coalition’s election manifesto, Zajkova said, pointing to the field of environment; youth policies; assistance for the establishment of businesses by young people; financial housing assistance for young people under 29; as well as joint measures in the field of the judiciary. 

“We can admit that this field [the judiciary] was actually the field where we maybe failed the most in part due to some of the blockades of the opposition party in Parliament, but also maybe because we let things go on, but it’s good that those 40 measures of the peer review mission were adopted, that’s very important for LDP and the efforts to filter the judiciary, as well as the vetting of politicians which is especially important for me. I agree with the statements of presidential candidate Stevo Pendarovski that the vetting of politicians should start from the 90s, when the country was established, because it was then that the greatest abuses with the state budget and the distribution of capital in the country took place. I can also freely say it should begin with me since I have no burdens in terms of these issues,” Zajkova stressed. 

Asked if an electoral model consisting of a single electoral district with open lists is a part of the coalition agreement, the LDP leader said the past years have shown that this issue isn’t just down to one party, but she said they would continue to fight for a model with a single electoral district. 

“If there really is a will to do so, then the electoral district in Macedonia can change and consist of a single district where the vote of each citizen will be more appropriately represented. Currently, the votes of maybe 40-50.000 citizens are being wasted because they aren’t concentrated in one electoral district, and these people are left without their representatives in Parliament,” Zajkova said. 

Regarding the constitutional amendments, which have emerged as a dominant topic at the current elections, Zajkova said that “unlike some parties who first wish to win power and position and then share their plans LDP has a clear position that it is in the country’s interest to become an EU member as soon as possible.” She said she personally believes that the opening of negotiations per chapters will bring reforms to the country because, according to Zajkova, “it has become evident that we can’t reach a national consensus on important matters and, unfortunately, partisan interests always dominate.” The sooner the constitutional amendments are adopted, the sooner the country can begin this process, she said, adding that full-fledged membership by 2030 is an achievable goal. 

“It’s not my assessment that the constitutional amendments are important. This is what the people in Brussels, who are leading the enlargement process, are saying. Regarding the manipulation over possible renegotiations, I want to ask if they managed to lobby and reach an agreement with all member states for this to happen, even though the position coming from there is that there can be no renegotiations of an already agreed negotiating framework. Based on global developments, it is in our interest to open these chapters as soon as possible, but also close them as soon as possible, so that the system can be reformed and we can become a full-fledged member by 2030, with our citizens standing side by side with their European compatriots. We live on the European continent, we naturally belong to the European Union,” Zajakova underscored when asked what would happen if the country fails to adopt the amendments. 

In the interview, Zajkova confirmed that one of LDP’s commitments is the election of the country’s president in Parliament with a two-third majority. She said this stems from their position for a rational political system and has been a part of the LDP’s manifesto since 2011, but she wouldn’t like to use the topic to win political points during an election period. These are topics that should be seriously discussed, Zajkova said. 

“Yes, we’ve included this commitment, but not so it can act as a factor for payback or blackmail in Parliament. This is a serious topic that requires a broad discussion and it’s not a topic that should be used for blackmail during the elections, it is something that we’ve included due to the aspect of the president’s powers and the declining turnout [at presidential elections], whether it is realistic for the census to be achieved and whether we really need such great expenses for the election of president. However, I will reiterate, this is not something we should discuss in these circumstances in which others are using it to once again cause a situation of political agreements, payback, blackmail etc.,” Zajkova said. 

In terms of the country’s relations with its neighbors and the recent controversy due to the announcement by Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani, who was running for president, that North Macedonia would co-sponsor the UN draft resolution on Srebrenica, Zajkova said the country should not be harming its relations with Serbia, who, according to her, is North Macedonia’s “great partner and great supporter.” 

According to Zajkova the announcement was used during a political campaign, which, she said, is regretful since Parliament adopted a declaration in 2010 accepting the European Parliament’s resolution which recognized the acts in Srebrenica as genocide. 

Zajkova has been LDP’s leader for two years now. Asked about the challenges faced by a woman in a leadership position in politics, she said the biggest challenges faced by women are life in a society full of stereotypes and the fact that women need to do twice as much to prove their worth. She also highlighted the rise in online violence, i.e., negative comments, hate speech. 

“I am glad that in this coalition we remain committed to the adoption of the Law on Gender Equality. It is also good that we adopted the Law on Prevention and Protection from Discrimination, in order to contribute to the overcoming of these stereotypes and taboos. The Istanbul Convention was a significant step forward, so there is improvement in terms of gender equality or equality between men and women. However, women in politics really face serious challenges and the road isn’t so easy, even though it might seem like everything is easy and perfect for them. They are fighting windmills both inside the parties but also outside in society,” Zajkova underlined. 

Her last initiative as MP in Parliament was the submission of amendments to the Law on Protection and Welfare of Animals. Asked what would be her first initiative in the new composition of Parliament, if elected, Zajkova clarified that this initiative would remain in the new composition as well, since, she said, animals should have the appropriate welfare. But she also spoke about the aspect of people’s security, as well as budget funds paid out in compensation. The LDP leader said they would resubmit numerous draft laws which they’ve submitted to Parliament but never ended up on the agenda, including some related to the judiciary. 

“Regarding the judiciary, we will remain committed to our Criminal Code amendments with which we propose an increase of the deadline for the expiration of the statute of limitations that refer to budget abuses, including the abuse of official position and authorization, as well as accountability of people working in the judiciary. Because, I will say again, not all judges and prosecutors are corrupt, but there has to be a filter in order to see who is corrupt, maybe in the example of the Scandinavian countries – if they are shown to have interfered in a certain case or that they’ve stalled cases, they should be banned from working in the field of the judiciary,” Zajkova said. 

The interview with Monika Zajkova, LDP leader and the Coalition for European Future's list co-principal in the first electoral district, is being published as part of a series of interviews ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections scheduled for May 8. 

Violeta Gerov

Translated by Angel Dimoski

Photo: MIA

Video and editing: Andrej Brankovikj and Vladimir Rabasovikj