Skopje, 20 July 2023 (MIA) – VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said Thursday that after the publishing and forwarding of the draft constitutional amendments to Parliament, the country’s position is dramatically worsening because, he said, it will have an impact in the future as well. “Now,” stressed Mickoski, “the only consensus that can be reached with the Prime Minister is over a date for elections.”

According to Mickoski, there was no need for the Government to come out with a draft text at the moment and by doing so, he said, it has made a mistake.

“First of all, the public should be aware, and we as a political party have said this many times in the past, that there was absolutely no need for a draft to appear in the public now, because the first step, which requires 80 MPs, is a step determining the need to open the Constitution. And if there is no two-third majority and 80 MPs, then the process ends there. If there is a two-third majority, then we enter the second step, which requires a majority of 61 MPs, and this is when the text of the draft-changes is to be discussed. There was absolutely no reason for this to happen now. In this way, the Government and Kovachevski and the others, have made a third mistake in a row,” said Mickoski.

The first essential mistake, said Mickoski, “was the fact they entered a process without political and societal consensus, when they secretly negotiated with Bulgaria, and as a result of those secret negotiations the French so-called proposal emerged.”

The second mistake of the Government, according to the leader of the opposition, is that they entered a process of accepting the task, despite, he said, “the clear position of the largest political party and the large majority of citizens that there is no political nor societal consensus.”

Mickoski said he couldn’t understand the President of the country, Stevo Pendarovski, and Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski, who, according to him, are inflicting great, historic damage to the country.

“They are incomprehensible to me. I have never seen people that hate their own country and people so much. To hate them so much and inflict such historic damage, I have never seen this not only on the political stage in Macedonia, but beyond, as well. And they enter a process in which they know they can’t deliver, but they think that by doing so, they might make some foreign factors of influence like them, so they can remain on the political stage a little longer,” said Mickoski.

Regarding the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bujar Osmani, Mickoski said he can’t blame him because he understands that Osmani “looks after his own personal and partisan interests above all, and then is also careful that the interest of a part of the Albanian people, who are our compatriots, isn’t impacted as well.” Mickoski urged the Foreign Minister to visit the surrounding countries and “more than a hundred universities in the world” in order to hear what language is being spoken.

“I don’t have any remarks here, because he clearly said that the Macedonian language is only limited to these 25.000 square kilometers, i.e., the present country of Macedonia, and that a dialect doesn’t exist in any other place. Since he already visited Albania, and heard the Macedonians in Pogradec and Pustec, I would like him to go to Gora in Kosovo, to go to the Pirin part of Macedonia, to the northern part of Greece, Aegean Macedonia, to go to the southern part of Serbia, and to visit more than a hundred universities in the world where Macedonian language departments exist, so he can hear what language is being spoken there,” said Mickoski.

According to Mickoski, the policy of the current Government is for the country and the people to be “pushed up against the wall” and then say “go see with the opposition, we are unable to deliver.”

“Which is why I would like to say clearly, that the sooner this policy, and these politicians cease to be a part of the Macedonian political stage, the sooner we will exit this gloom and have certain predictability. Because the future VMRO-DPMNE Government, regardless if it is a matter of a national issue, an issue in the field of the economy, tax reform, or something else, will never enter a meaningful discussion without a political consensus, and even societal consensus if that is necessary,” said Mickoski.

Asked if there is still a chance for a consensus to be reached, the leader of the opposition said it is too late.

“With Prime Minister Kovachevski we can now discuss only one consensus, and that’s about early parliamentary elections. Everything else is a part of the response I gave previously. We can only sit down for talks if it is to agree on a date for early parliamentary elections,” said Mickoski.