Skopje, 29 January 2026 (MIA) – Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski insisted again Thursday that the Constitution won’t be changed unless, as he said, at least two conditions are met – guaranteed rights for the Macedonian community in Bulgaria and a guarantee from the European Council for the Macedonian nation that it will be the last concession and that there will be no new bilateral vetoes, humiliation and obstruction or new adjectives related to Macedonia and the Macedonian identity.

Speaking at Thursday’s Q&A session in Parliament, Mickoski said he is prepared to “go all the way” and sought support from all political stakeholders urging the members of Parliament to pass a joint resolution.

As long as I’m prime minister, the Constitution won’t be changed unless at least two conditions are met, he insisted.

"The first condition is the Macedonian community in Bulgaria to be granted guaranteed rights in line with international law and international human rights conventions. I don’t call for changing of the Constitution.”

“The second one is – guarantees for our Macedonian identity that there won’t be any more bilateral vetoes and that our country, which has proven on so many occasions that it wants to be part of the European family, has sacrificed a lot like no other country, won’t be subjected to another humiliation and obstruction due to some subjective reasons.”

“I ask you to support us because as long as you have this attitude, someone out there is seeing a gap here thinking they can find a “soft tissue” here. We all need to adopt a resolution containing a statesman-like position that without these couple of processes we won’t make concessions in the future regardless of the topic,” Mickoski said responding to a question about the constitutional change from MP Skender Rexhepi.

Sometimes you have to demonstrate integrity, the PM said, otherwise, you’ll end up as a wimp.

“Therefore, Rexhepi, I ask you and your colleagues here to pass a resolution defining the real principles. You should support the position about the Macedonians in Razlog, Gorna Dzhumaya, Sandanski, Pirin… According to the 1956 census, there were 200,000. It was reduced to 9,000 magically by 1965. A former Bulgarian president proudly had called it engineering. Their rights to cultural autonomy, to speak their Macedonian mother tongue was taken away from them. All they want now is OMO Ilinden Pirin to be the organization that represents the rights of the Macedonian community in Bulgaria. Is it too much to ask for? No. The same as those in Pogradec that had opened an office in Tirana. Kudos to my colleague Edi Rama,” said PM Mickoski.

MP Skender Rexhepi proposed that a resolution should be adopted protecting, as he said, the Macedonian language.

“We’ll make efforts to draft a resolution before we pass the constitutional change because the future of the citizens will depend on the decision of the government and the assembly,” he stated. 

Photo: MIA