Skopje, 30 October 2024 (MIA) -- Putting the constitutional changes to a vote in Parliament before Bulgaria forms a government "would be naive" and "any such unilateral move would completely jeopardize the country's European integration process that has already been jeopadized by the previous government's adventures," Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said Wednesday.

Commenting on the possibility of reaching a cross-party position on adopting the constitutional amendments with their entering into force only when the country completes the accession talks, Mickoski said he had called for "a cross-party position on many open issues" in his Oct. 23 speech.

He said VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition parners had not discussed the option of the LDP party joining the ruling coalition, adding that "any lawmakers are welcome to support this government's policies by voting in Parliament."

Regarding Bulgaria, Mickoski said that "we should receive some signal so we can move forward" and that "we will certainly not be going into any adventures -- otherwise we would have done this much earlier, if we were novices in this matter."

"We are not Bujar Osmani or Marichikj or Kovachevski to be gullible and naively believe the interests of third parties," Mickoski said.

"Our interest are Macedonian citizens, the state, and the EU integration processes. We are on the front line and we will defend them and we will fight.

"Trust us. We will never embarrass our citizens, regardless of their ethnic, political, party or non-party affiliation. We have a common goal, which is for Macedonia to one day be part of the European family."

The prime minister said the process of accession to the EU needed to have a "visible ending." 

"As long as it does not have a clearly visible ending, we have no intention of making a single move," he said. 

Mickoski also said Bulgaria needed to have a political government that would be able to be held politically responsible.

"I am often told that these were situations in which we needed to find a 'win-win' solution," he said. "We cannot find a 'win-win' solution. There cannot be two winners. It is impossible. This will be a case of everyone losing something. But with the French proposal, as it has been conceived, we lose everything and get nothing."

"We don't intend to enter this process so that six months later, or a year or three years later, some other issue from the Middle Ages becomes an obstacle to our entering the 22nd century," Mickoski said.

"I will not allow this as long as I am prime minister. When mediocrities and exhibitionists such as those we had in politics in the past seven years come to power, maybe they would accept anything so they can deepen their pockets. My interest, as long as I am prime minister, is the citizens' interest.

"As long as 75-80 percent of citizens say, 'Don't do it this way -- do it this way,' I have to respect that and I will respect that," the PM said.

In response to a reporter's question on all parties across the political spectrum potentially agreeing around the delayed effect of the constitutional changes, Mickoski said: "Even in my Oct. 23 speech I called for a cross-party position on many open issues that, according to us as a government, represent serious challenges."

"Everyone is welcome," he said. "Anyone who is concerned, the door is open to them, they can join us." 

"We have a clear plan and a clear strategy on what to do," Mickoski said, adding that "all of us need to stand together because they will be looking for a soft tissue where they can slice us apart."

"We need to stand together if we want to succeed in righting the wrong that was done before," Mickoski said. mr/