Skopje, 23 February 2025 (MIA) — Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Sunday he would continue telling the truth about Macedonia and its European integration path everywhere outside the country and continue voicing the nation's frustration regarding double standards. Speaking to the press after a visit to the Municipality of Gazi Baba, Mickoski highlighted the importance of making allies as this was the new normal coming from Washington, he said. 

According to Prime Minister Mickoski, the country receives broad support for its European integration.

"No one has ever said, 'Sorry, we do not support your integration.' Everyone understands our arguments. Everyone stands up behind the curtains, shakes our hands and says, 'That's it, that's the truth, enough of double standards, you need to move forward.' But, unfortunately, there is this EU country, we all know it, which is trying—instead of letting us work in the 21st or 22nd century—to take us back to the Middle Ages, to the 11th or 12th century," Mickoski said.

"Literally everyone else looks with affection toward this small country in the heart of the Balkans," he added.

According to him, the truth about the country needs to be told in as many places as possible.

"It is good to build at home and win in our cities, but we also need to start winning in Washington, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Rome, London, everywhere we have not had the ambition to win so far, because of irresponsible politicians, unfortunately," he said.

"Our ambition is to defiantly try to tell the truth, the real truth that is painful to us Macedonians, in particular, and to the citizens of Macedonia as well, because it is the truth that we feel and that creates frustration," the PM said.

"As long as I lead the government, I will try to fight everywhere in the world for the truth about Macedonia and for a better life for Macedonian citizens," he added.

Asked to comment on being pointed out at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington as the only European leader who had applauded US Vice President J.D. Vance's speech at the Munich Security Conference—and asked whether the country was headed toward the extreme right—Mickoski said the truth should not be censored, especially when double standards were being pointed out.

"I wouldn't say Vance represents the far right. If a person tells the truth and if the truth contains real examples clearly showing double standards—he gave the example of the presidential elections in Romania, several cases in Britain, Scotland, Germany—this shouldn't worry us and we shouldn't try to censor this. You should look the truth in the eye and find a way to argue and fight if you want to change that truth. This shouldn't worry us, on the contrary," Mickoski said.

He also said he had spoken with dozens of people at the CPAC, the annual meeting of conservative leaders he attended in Washington.

"That's the new normal that is coming from Washington and that will flood the world. There is no playing around here," he said. 

"We are the ones who occupy the field first. That's the way I work. There's no second chance for a first impression. Occupy the field and then whoever comes, the second, the third, gets in line behind you. We have to occupy the field and find ourselves in the new normal. That's my campaign," Mickoski said.

"But also, we have to voice our frustration and pain," he added.

"If anyone has a problem with what Vance said, I also have a problem with not being able to move a millimeter for 20 years – not because I'm not good enough, but because someone else needs to be tackling issues from the 10th and 11th centuries. We shouldn't run away from it. We should tell each other the truth. It may not be nice to hear, but it is what it is."

The prime minister said writing on social media was not the right way to protect the country's interests. Instead, he said, politicians should "talk face to face, fight and argue – I think that's the right way." 

"I don't know if anything will change, but I will fight," he added.

The prime minister said he would attend Friday a private dinner with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul to confirm the strategic partnership between the two countries. 

He also said he would take part in a government conference in Budapest and send messages to allies there, as well.

"We have to be making allies. This is the new normal," Mickoski said. mr/