site.btaNorth Macedonia's PM: New Government Ready to Talk with Neighbours "with Arguments and Facts"

"The policy of the new Government of North Macedonia is to build bridges with the neighbours because good neighbourly relations are a two-way street," North Macedonia's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said on Wednesday. The new Government is ready talk with its neighbours about the future "with arguments and facts", Mickoski added.

On Tuesday, Mickoski said that if there is a desire and political will, the negotiating framework for the country’s accession to the European Union can be changed. In response to his words, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev said that the new government of North Macedonia "has clearly shown that the the biggest fear of the political class of this country is to recognize the very existence of the word 'Bulgarian'". GERB leader Boyko Borissov also made a comment, saying that treaties, especially those woven into the EU negotiating framework, need to be implemented. 

Responding to a journalist’s question about the comments in Sofia, regretted “the messages coming from the eastern neighbour of North Macedonia”.

"I think this type of anachronistic messages are part of the Middle Ages, but unfortunately in modern Europe, in the 21st century, there are still politicians like the second one you quoted [Rumen Radev]. I am prepared to sit down and talk to both”, North Macedonia's Prime Minister said.

Mickoski said, “My best wishes to Borissov in forming a government, because we [like Borissov's GERB party] belong in the European People's Party and it is logical to want our eastern neighbour to have a government that is in the same political family. But the eastern neighbour should also know that the time is over for politicians who bent over backwards and knelt down, signed everything that was put on the table, and at the same time, while waving the European flag, robbed the people and shamed and humiliated their country. They have to get used to politicians who work around the clock for the future of their country and its citizens.”