Prof. Denko Maleski, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to the UN, in today’s column published on “Plusinfo”, entitled “Macedonia needs leadership, not a referendum”, demanded the resignation of President Stevo Pendarovski.

In his text, prof. Maleski, among other things, writes:

“…The opposition demands a referendum after the president of the republic’s speech, says the leader of the party of Macedonian nationalists. It is manipulation, the president answers after a few days of silence, which caused confusion in the public about the reasons that made him make this careless statement. Now, when the word is out, being in line with the president’s thinking may mean that the opposition party would also accept his phrasing of the referendum question: Do you want the Republic of Macedonia to be a member of the EU? The President is sure that with such a clearly formulated question, the pro-European coalition will defeat the anti-European policy made up of VMRO-DPMNE and Levica. But what is certain in politics? Aware of that fact, he adds: if it is not so “all of us who are in this place will withdraw”… All?

I think that if referendum is indeed held, partly due to the president’s fault, it is enough for him to offer his resignation. With that act, he will give strong support to the government that completely rejects the idea of a referendum and decides to lead using the instruments of representative democracy.

This attitude of Prof. Maleski is another confirmation of the enmity between him and the head of state. It started at the time when Prof. Maleski was his advisor for international relations and he performed that task until Pendarovski’s statement that Goce Delchev was a Bulgarian revolutionary. Under public pressure, Pendarovski withdrew from that position and Delcev became his red line in relations with Bulgaria, after which Prof. Maleski lost his advisor position. But apparently their mutual enmity continues.