Skopje, 16 March 2024 (MIA) — If she won the presidential election, her policy as head of state toward neighboring countries would be Scandinavian, VMRO-DPMNE's presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova said in a TV 24 appearance on Friday evening.

She also said if she became President, she would pay her first official visit to a country from the region, likely Slovenia or Croatia as EU member states.

"Because if we don't stand together and support one another regionally, we can't expect support from other countries," Siljanovska-Davkova said, pointing to Sweden, Finland and Denmark's supportive stance toward Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania on their way to building democracy even though, she noted, they had a worse starting point than the former Yugoslav countries.

The VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate also said she had expected EU member states in the neighborhood to be the first to help North Macedonia, but they, she said, "cannot leave behind the Balkan logic of ultimatums, nationalism, Balkanization, corruption and crime."

She said some of them "caused us problems and have forgotten the Article 8 of the Lisbon Treaty that says the EU will encourage agreements with its neighbors on a reciprocal basis and help them on its way to the EU." 

"If we sign treaties of friendship and good-neighborliness, there is no need for veto threats, which are far from friendship and good-neighborliness," Siljanovska-Davkova said.

Asked if she would invite Bulgarian Predident Rumen Radev to a tete-a-tete meeting, she said, "Of course, you cannot avoid geography and geopolitics."

"Of course I will discuss everything. For someone to respect you, you need to set an example," she said, adding that she had released books in Bulgaria and made Bulgarian friends through the Venice Commission.

She couldn't say when the required constitutional change would be introduced but pointed out the country had changed the Constitution so many times over the past 30 years yet they did not pertain "to the constitutional order and democracy but were initiated from outside."

According to her, the Friendship Treaty was being violated by Bulgaria, and not by North Macedonia. "We need guarantees from our neighbor, as proof of friendship and good neighborliness," she said.

Asked about her opinion on potential changes to the country's negotiating framework with the EU, she said any agreements had to be based on the EU's fundamental principles. She said there were "more sacred books" than the Negotiating Framework – the Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Human Rights.

"Negotiations with Bulgaria may be ongoing, but they should not use the veto, because of these fundamental principles," she said, adding that a mutual agreement was needed that "that the veto will not be used as a whip to threaten neighbors."

In the interview, Siljanovska-Davkova also said that regardless of the outcome of the elections, a government without Albanian parties was not a good solution. She also said that a presidential cabinet without Albanians was not a good solution but that her office would employ "expert and competent Albanians". mr/