Skopje, 11 March 2024 (MIA) — VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski called on all citizens to vote in the upcoming elections and decide "what sort of country they want to live in," adding that the elections are "not a choice between Europe and isolation, as the government says" but "between Ali Ahmeti, Artan Grubi, Bujar Osmani, Zechevikj, Marichikj, Pendarovski and Kovachevski" and "VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition."

"Any other, third option or staying home is a direct vote for the first group: Ali Ahmeti, Artan Grubi, Bujar Osmani, Zechevikj, Marichikj, Pendarovski and Kovachevski," Mickoski said. "I call on all citizens to come out en masse in the next elections, to participate, and decide what sort of country they want to live in."

Dismissing SDSM's suggestion that if VMRO-DPMNE came to power, it would isolate the country from the international community, Mickoski said the Social Democrats "have been selling this fanciful lie for six and a half years". He said "they signed everything that was put on the table" and "violated all Macedonia's negotiating positions and got nothing in return." 

"Not only did they not bring Europe here," the VMRO-DPMNE head said, "but they also pushed Macedonia away from Europe. These elections are not a choice between Europe and isolation."

He added that there was no dilemma that the country's European path was the future of Macedonian citizens, stressing that Europe should "finally say what it really plans."

"The position of VMRO-DPMNE is principled," Mickoski said. "We, the Macedonian citizens, have to know what Europe is really planning with Macedonia, and not look for excuses. Europe should finally tell our people what it really plans with this nation instead of us being the topic of someone's daily political bickering. We stand for the real European values defined when the EU was founded by Schumann, Adenauer and De Gasperi. We stand for honoring the Copenhagen Criteria, and not bilateral disputes that unfortunately only Macedonia has to deal with unlike any other nation before or after us," Mickoski said.

Saying that Bulgaria was not honoring 14 judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, he added: "If the EU cannot convince them to implement a European institution's decision, then how can we believe this is their last request?"

Asked whether his party would negotiate with the EU, he said "VMRO-DPMNE is ready, immediately after forming the government, to sit down for talks, but on the basis of the real Copenhagen Criteria."

"The Macedonian Constitution as it stands now, guarantees the human rights of all ethnic communities in Macedonia, including the several hundred citizens of Macedonia who are part of the Bulgarian community in Macedonia.

"But unfortunately, I would say, thousands, tens of thousands of Macedonian citizens in Bulgaria cannot even form their own non-governmental organization. These are not European values," the VMRO-DPMNE president said.

He also said that if the European Council wanted to make a favorable decision for the country, it would simply make it. He said the rule of consensus had been shown not to apply when a decision really needed to be pushed through.

"So I ask our European partners not to use the familiar right of consensus as an argument, but to ask the Bulgarian President or their representative, when the moment comes to decide for Macedonia to continue on the European path, to leave the room and go to another room where he can have a coffee or something," Mickoski said. 

"If Bulgaria were a good neighbor and instead of obstructing and blocking us with a veto, it supported us, it would have made it possible in practice for Macedonia to become a part of the European family a long time ago," he said. mr/