Skopje, 27 September 2025 (MIA) - Speaking at Saturday's round table regional conference "One Region. One Vision. One Future.", organized by the Progres Institute, SDSM leader Venko Filipche said that an unprecedented diplomatic debacle was taking place under the leadership of the current government. 

"Total diplomatic isolation at the UN meeting, the President meets with the lowest-ranking diplomat from the United States. Diplomacy has never experienced such a debacle before," he said.

Filipche described this as a symbolic, but very serious confirmation of where the country stands today on the international stage. According to him, North Macedonia, from a country that was recognized and supported by key strategic partners, is today a country that only receives attention on the margins, without real political influence, without serious discussions and without respect.

"It all comes down to taking selfies with some diplomats in the corridors of major world institutions," said Filipche, adding that the path to NATO and the EU was not easy and did not come without a political price, but that path was worth it and was the right one.

Filipche further noted that the difference between the former and the current government is precisely that SDSM had always put the interest of the state before party calculations.

"And now it is just an additional incentive to fight, and tell the citizens that our policies were good, were in the interest of the state, of the citizens. It did not matter, we do not weigh up whether we will lose part of our political rating, because it was worth it for the country to move forward, to resolve the decades-old name issue, to become a NATO member," said the SDSM leader.

Filipche said that with the current government, the European path has been stopped, institutionally and essentially, pointing out that this government does not want to continue the European path.

According to him, there is a lack of leadership, courage and vision for the country's future, and the government is evading difficult decisions and reducing all external engagements to a superficial image for the public without real content.

Photo: SDSM