site.btaNorth Macedonia’s VMRO-DPMNE: Proposed Changes to Constitution Dramatically Worsen Country's Position

The proposed changes to North Macedonia's constitution "dramatically worsen the country's position now and in the future", said Hristijan Mickoski, leader of the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE, who opposes the constitutional changes and insists they come into force after the end of the country's negotiations with the EU.

According to him, specific texts, "which emerged as a result of the work of a working committee", were not needed at all because the first vote in Parliament, which requires a two-thirds majority, is related to the need to open the Constitution and if this proposal does not get support, "it all ends there".

"For the third time they are making a mistake. First, the government entered into a situation to negotiate with Bulgaria in secret, resulting in the French proposal, without [the government] having public support for it. The second time they went into the process of accepting the proposal, again without the support of the opposition and the public, and now for the third time, without any need, they are coming out with concrete proposals.

In April, the government of North Macedonia established a working group under the Ministry of Justice with representatives of political parties, academia, public and non-governmental organizations, in which the VMRO-DPMNE refused to participate.

Asked about North Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski's call for political forces in the country to reach a consensus to vote on constitutional changes that open the way to real negotiations on the individual clusters of the country's EU accession, Mickoski replied that it is too late for consensus now and the only consensus that can be reached now is on the specific date for early elections.

Regarding the words of the country's President Stevo Pendarovski that neither he nor the EU diplomats arriving in North Macedonia understand VMRO-DPMNE's arguments, Mickoski replied that he does not care at all whether Pendarovski understands him or not.

"President Pendarovski is currently kneeling down to be supported for a second (presidential) term and he thinks that this way he will be re-elected, which I think is a wrong assessment and he is only losing his image and his human dignity. But let him continue to kneel, it is important for us to be understood by more than 80% of the citizens in Northern Macedonia, and whether Stevo Pendarovski understands us is his personal problem," Mickoski stressed.