Skopje, 12 September 2022 (MIA) – There is no sense in holding a referendum when VMRO-DPMNE does not plan to vote for the constitutional revision regardless of its outcome. Only one referendum makes sense – are you in favor of EU membership or not, says Deputy PM for European Affairs Bojan Marichikj. “The referendum issue is a serious one and I regret that VMRO-DPMNE has opened it in this way and put the citizens in such a situation. VMRO-DPMNE relates the referendum question to the 2017 Bulgaria Friendship Treaty, for which the party had the opportunity, as was the case with the French proposal, but did not have the courage to vote against. Both in 2017 and in July of this year, the opposition did not vote against but left the hall during the vote,” Deputy PM Marichikj told Telma TV. He says that the VMRO-DPMNE programme has said for years that any solution with Greece should be put for a referendum, and when the 2018 referendum took place, they decided to boycott it. “If VMRO-DPMNE was truly against the Friendship Treaty, they should have voted against its ratification, but now, five years later, they open the referendum issue,” says Marichikj. According to him, the conditions for North Macedonia’s EU accession are already set in the Negotiating Framework, noting that the referendum question should be not whether the people are against the Friendship Treaty but whether they favor EU membership. “Only one referendum makes sense: are you in favor of EU membership or not. All other questions circumvent the only real question,” says Marichikj. He says it would be best for the state if the focus is placed on a joint agenda of reforms, joint work on the screening and the negotiations, whereas all open issues to be discussed in the National Euro-integration Council.