President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova met today with SDSM party leader Venko Filipce. The meeting comes after the opposition party held a meeting of its Central Committee to begin electing new party officials.

In a statement to the press after the meeting, Filipce said that he raised several issues, including the planned merger of the two main security services – the ANB and the AR – the latter service operating under the mandate of the President.

I informed her of the risks. We believe that the risk of merging the two security services is too great, and that, if the partization of the services continues, we would have another bad experience with its abuse, Filipce said.

He added that he talked with President Siljanovska about her recent meeting with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, and said that SDSM will support any improvement in the Macedonian positions toward Bulgaria.

I informed President Siljanovska that during the negotiations led by SDSM, there was an attempt to have a delayed effect to the constitutional changes, but the Bulgarian side, and its then Prime Minister Petkov, refused this proposal. But, I repeat, we will support any improvement in our position, Filipce said.