English
I have no intention of thinking about making constitutional amendments without guarantees, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, after SDSM proposed making the requested concessions to Bulgaria by early next year.
Our position is clear, we do not ignore the obligations that the previous SDSM government unfortunately accepted, but we also do not see that our eastern neighbor is doing anything in the direction of delivering on its own obligations. We expect more robust action from the EU and our eastern neighbor, that is, their partner within the European family, because we have seen in the past many times – that anything is possible, said Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski.
He emphasizes that for him there are only Macedonian red lines, and that he will state his position on the SDSM proposal after the local elections.
We have a clear position, we need guarantees – which were mentioned by the President of the European Council Costa, because Macedonian citizens, regardless of ethnicity, have given up a lot in the name of the European future of the state, like no other people in Europe. Without such guarantees, it does not occur to me to think about any constitutional amendments. What about the Macedonians on the other side of that border? Will we as governments on the Macedonian people always give away ground in the neighborhood and everywhere in the world? I will never do that. Bulgaria needs to apply what the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg decided, which is also a fundamental European value – so that OMO Ilinden Pirin can function as an association of Macedonians in Bulgaria and thus gain the right to representation in the Council of Ministers for Minorities in Bulgaria, just as the Jews, Armenians, Turks, Roma, etc. have the same right. The Macedonians, who according to the 1956 census were the majority in western Bulgaria, but in 1965 200,000 magically disappeared, deserved to have their own representative there, the Prime Minister underlined.
Mickoski noted that unfortunately, this SDSM leadership is also continuing the practice of its previous party leaderships – to destroy, as he says, the positions of the Macedonian Government and state and to sell out identity and national priorities for reasons incomprehensible to him.
