In a TV interview, VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova discussed her foreign policy priorities in the region, and lamented the lack of support from the older EU and NATO member states for those coming out of Communism, like Macedonia. Siljanovska compared this to the treatment of the Baltic states by the Scandinavian countries, who extended support and helped the EU and NATO integration of the Baltics. Macedonia was blocked from joining EU and NATO by Greece for three decades, and is currently blocked on the EU path by Bulgaria.

We expected that the closest EU member states will be the first to help us. But instead, they were unable to drop the Balkan logic of pressure, nationalism, corruption and crime. Those who were already on the inside made problems for us, forgetting that the Lisbon Treaty, article 8, pledges that the EU will help its neighbors toward membership. If we are signing treaties of friendship and good-neighborly relations, why then the threats of veto?, Siljanovska said.

She added that her first foreign trips as President will be to the EU countries in the region, probably Croatia or Slovenia, and that she will also reach out to Bulgarian President Rumen Radev.

Of course that we need to have friends in Bulgaria, who will appreaciate us. I have had books published in Bulgaria, have worked with Bulgarian colleagues in the Venice Commission with full respect. In politics, we must reach out beyond the formulas of power, toward perceptions of politics as art of the possible, the ability to reach compromise, Siljanovska said.

Regarding the Bulgarian dispute, she said that it is Bulgaria, not Macedonia, which violates the friendship treaty signed by Zaev and Borisov in 2017.

We have a fatal attitude of holding a veto over our heads, when there are other mechanisms that are available. We need guarantees from our neighbor as proof of friendship and good-neighborly intentions, Siljanovska said, urging Bulgaria to have the negotiations take place without the threat of veto for Macedonia’s EU accession talks.