Skopje, 9 November 2022 (MIA) – VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski reiterated Wednesday his demand for early parliamentary elections, stressing that if the current government remains the country’s situation will worsen. “Every other solution means prolonging the agony. Because every other solution means that we have no plan, it means more crime, more corruption, worse healthcare, a catastrophe in education, weaker economy, higher inflation, and this is why we say that we need elections so that Macedonia and its citizens can stop losing, so that we can save our Macedonia from agony. This is the essence of our demands for early elections. There is no other option that would allow this government to remain, because we can see that we are the worst in Europe,” said Mickoski, adding that the longer the government stays, the worse the situation will become. According to him, the government lacks the majority necessary for the constitutional amendments. It has been five months since the government accepted the last proposal, he added, and nothing has changed since. “The mood of the citizens has not improved nor has the support of the proposal increased, on the contrary it has worsened. The percentage of citizens who oppose the constitutional amendments under the conditions accepted by the government has increased. As a political party, we have a clear and explicit position. As a coalition, we also have a clear and explicit position. We are clearly and explicitly stating that the Constitution, i.e., the Preamble, will not be amended,” said Micskoski. He said that the parliamentary speaker said that the constitutional amendments require 4.5-5 months, which, according to Mickoski, means more wasting time instead of working on reforms. The opposition leader said he believes that this topic serves to distract the public. “It is clear that there is no majority of 80 MPs. Which is all the more reason why we should have early elections because the only policy of SDSM and DUI is currently collapsing. Will they use the Prespa method and drag the MPs by their ears, and try to pull it off through unconventional methods, with bribes, threats, blackmail, I don’t know and I don’t want to believe that they will. But, considering the character of these people, anything is possible,” said Mickoski. He is convinced that they will not be able to convince some of VMRO-DPMNE's MPs in this way. “This is why I said this is not like the Prespa vote,” said Mickoski. He called for reason because “the policy of forcefully amending the Constitution and the Preamble is failing.” “It was clear from the leaders’ meeting that they do not have a two-third majority. They should not be afraid, they should face the people, and call early elections,” said Mickoski. On the possibility of the Alliance of Albanians joining the government, Mickoski said that according to him this would not be a wise move and encouraged the party to continue operating from the opposition. “I consider the Alliance for Albanians to be an opposition party. They have their own decision-making bodies and if they decide they should join the government it would mean they share all of the government’s values, and I already mentioned why this government should step down and why we need early elections. If you ask me, I do not think that it would be a wise move to join the government. The Alliance has its own structure and they have a lot of space in the opposition to act and I encourage them to continue operating from the opposition, but still the decisions of each party are autonomous decisions,” said the opposition leader. ad/ba/