Skopje, 17 June 2026 (MIA) – Those who are at the helm of SDSM, the party that helped the adoption of the Prespa Agreement, have been openly sending messages full of lies, but it’s a fact that former EU bureaucrats had promised us major benefits from the signing of that agreement – free and better healthcare, education, quick NATO accession, quick opening and closing of the negotiations. None of that has happened expect us joining NATO, Prime Minister Mickoski said Wednesday. 

“Having learned those lessons from the past, we’re implementing our foreign policy, which hasn’t been created by polishing the shoes of EU diplomats in Brussels and kneeling – it’s based on arguments. This is how we are making friends at the moment. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon having in mind past mistakes. But we’re ready to fight,” Mickoski told reporters when asked for a comment on the eighth anniversary of the signing of the Prespa Agreement and cooperation with Greece. 

The government, he said, is aware that there are a lot of challenges, but it’s prepared to solve them one by one.

“We won’t give in. What matters is that Macedonia is accelerating and that we will win like many times before in the past,” the prime minister stressed. 

Mickoski insisted that he has no problem with having a meeting with representatives of governments from the neighborhood to talk about all the issues, including those on which the sides do not agree.

“I have no problem meeting and talking to all neighbors, representatives of governments from our neighborhood. We are working with our southern neighbor on many projects, including the gas interconnector, the oil pipeline, cross-border projects... We are in the same group with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in the European family of people's parties, with New Democracy - we just met in Tivat. I do not live by stereotypes and antagonism; the essence of life is to make more friends and as part of that friendship to exchange views on some situations with which you do not agree. We cannot agree on everything, but it is important to talk. I am absolutely ready to talk to anyone on all topics, even those on which we do not agree,” PM Mickoski said after visiting the reconstructed general hospital in Strumica. 

Photo: sceenshot