• Friday, 17 May 2024

Pendarovski: Opposition's referendum question is in fact suspending EU accession path 

Pendarovski: Opposition's referendum question is in fact suspending EU accession path 
Skopje, 6 September 2022 (MIA) - The opposition will offer a referendum question essentially asking the Macedonian citizens whether they want the country to suspend its EU accession path, President Stevo Pendarovski said Tuesday answering questions at a news conference after the Security Council session. Asked whether it is possible to support the VMRO-DPMNE-initiated referendum as a compensation for the constitutional changes, Pendarovski said: "Such a thing is utterly immoral and no one sane enough is not thinking about this, and also one thing excludes the other." According to the President, the opposition's referendum question means to in fact suspend the EU integration process. "If you support such a referendum - anti-European referendum given the question - there is no need to change the Constitution. One excludes the other. In a nutshell, what we've expected, we got it. We got a question, which essentially asks the Macedonian citizens - do you want the country to no longer be on the EU path. That is the question," stated Pendarovski. He said it is odd that the referendum question is not mentioning the Prespa Agreement as well, because "the EU negotiating framework, with which we recently started the negotiations, in a same sentence contains both the Prespa Agreement and the Bulgaria Treaty."