The talks with Sofia should be held at a different table than the European one, believes the leader of VMRO-DPMNE. The people want the EU, only Mickoski is against it, the ruling party retorts
VMRO-DPMNE will not give up its position on holding a referendum, because “the people are the sovereign in the country and only they can decide whether they want to go to the EU under these conditions”, said the chairman of the opposition party in an interview with Channel 5 North Macedonia Christian Mickoski.
According to him, the issue of the referendum can be clarified by September, talks with his coalition partners will continue when the deputies return from vacation.
Regarding the statements of President Stevo Pendarovski, who stated that he did not understand the request for a referendum, Mickoski emphasized that he was not disappointed, because he could be disappointed by a person whose opinion is important to him, and “Pendarovski is not a statesman, but a citizen”.
The chairman of VMRO-DPMNE stated that “under the current circumstances, he and his party will not support constitutional changes to include Bulgarians in the basic law of the country, until North Macedonia receives “European conditions and a European framework for negotiations, at least what Albania received” .
Mitkoski agrees that North Macedonia should have good neighborly relations with Sofia, but according to him, “what Bulgaria is doing to the country cannot be qualified as good neighborliness.”
“Talks with Bulgaria should be held at a different table than the European one. No one said that Bulgaria should not be negotiated, but the problem is that we have now put these negotiations on the same table as the European negotiations,” Mitkoski said.
“Only Mitkoski is against the EU together with his partner Dimitar Apasiev, who is walking the streets of a neighboring country for Ilinden. It is an anti-EU company that protects foreign interests. North Macedonia has started negotiations with the EU and there will be no turning back, nor turning left or right from the European path, at least in the east,” SDSM wrote in response.
“There is no force that can stand in the way of the European progress of our country”, said the Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Dimitar Kovachevski in his address in Krushevo, where with the opening of the scientific and cultural meeting “Ten days of the Krushevo Republic” the celebration of the national holiday began of the Republic of North Macedonia – Republic Day. This year it is under the motto “Ilinden – our strength for the future”.
“From now on, there is only forward. We are obliged to rush towards the European future”, Kovacevski declared and added that if someone blocks progressive ideas, then his interests do not coincide with the interests of the state, and now there is a “battle for the present and the future “.
“We have no prejudice against anyone. With this approach, we continue to develop. As Macedonians with the Macedonian language, we have our place at the European table. Our past flows in our veins and no one can take it away and deny it. This is the present we live in today – a free and independent Macedonian state. Leadership is not a person, it is an idea. Let us all work hard to secure our European future. It is up to us and we must do it. This battle before us is a battle for the present and the future and I promise you that together we will win it. Ilinden is and will be our strength for the European future. The fight must continue because freedom is preserved and the future is won,” Kovacevski said on Monday evening.
On Tuesday are the main celebrations of the national holiday of the Republic of North Macedonia. Prime Minister Kovachevski will speak on the Mechkin stone in Krushevo slovo. As the head of the state-church delegation in the monastery “St. Prohor Pczynski”, where on August 2, 1944 the first meeting of the Anti-Fascist Assembly of the People’s Liberation of Macedonia (ASNOM) was held, President Stevo Pendarovski will be present.
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