Skopje, 2 July 2025 (MIA) – The people see that this government is fighting to restore everything that the previous government sold off easily and cheaply, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, adding that the opposition "has neither legitimacy nor support from the people" to speak of a broad national consensus on European integration.

According to Mickoski, while the ruling party has been calling for such a consensus for months, the opposition is choosing no means "to stab us in the back". 

"We have been calling for such a consensus for months, but you see, while we are fighting to restore that on the international stage, they are choosing no means to stab us in the back, thinking that in that way they will appeal to those who do not wish Macedonia well, and that in that way they will return to power again. It does not work that way, the people do not have short memory. They know what happened in the past seven years," Mickoski told reporters after Wednesday's visit to the pharmaceutical company Replek. 

The opposition, Mickoski pointed out, is missing out on its opportunity to consolidate and to line up in the ranks of defenders of Macedonian interests, so as to regain at least some of its lost credibility.

"To be honest, they lost their credibility in two basic ways. The first was this one, the one I am talking about, i.e. by selling off Macedonia and its strategic interests, and the second was by a lot of theft and crime. Those were the two basic pillars. Those are the two reasons why every time you mention the opposition to the people, it has no legitimacy or support from the people, nor will it have," said Mickoski. 

Asked to comment on opposition leader Venko Filipche's statement that there is no political will for progress in European integration, Mickoski said he would not comment on "the opposition's exhibitions" which he assessed as a continuation of the betrayals and defeats from the past.

"As the government is fighting fiercely to restore the positions they undermined in the past and betrayed the national interests of the state, they are trying to put an additional burden on us from behind our backs, but we are strong, and we will endure all of that. I believe this is a wrong policy that the opposition is taking, I believe that the policy of 'bent spine', of betrayals, of easy signing of agreements and the like has led us to this situation we are in, and what this government and Macedonian diplomacy are doing is to restore the positions lost, as well as to show the world what is essentially hidden behind everything that was previously said to be a simple matter - just change the constitution and it will be all over, done, the land will be flowing with milk and honey, birds will sing, flowers will grow and everything will be perfect, but in essence that is not the case. In essence, the problem is very deep. We only scratched the surface a little and it all came out, so that both the world and Macedonian citizens can see what is at stake," Mickoski said. 

Asked to comment on reports that the EC Report expressed deep concern by a so-called "Serbian world", Mickoski said he had not seen the report, but rejected such conclusions, pointing out that he did not believe such a thing would be contained in an official report by the EU.

"I will comment on it when I look at it. But I absolutely reject such a conclusion, and I do not believe that it is contained in any official report by the EU, because it would be very naive. From the contacts I have with high EU representatives, at least since this Government came to power, not only do we not have any point of contact with such a conclusion, but on the contrary. There once was the "Open Balkan" initiative, but at least since this Government came to power, there is no such thing, because the meaning of all of it has been lost from what I can see," said Mickoski. 

Photo: MIA archive