As the committee meant to draft the constitutional amendments that Bulgaria demands from Macedonia is scheduled to meet in the middle of this week, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski warned about its composition. VMRO-DPMNE is not participating in the work of the committee, given the fact that the Government agreed to make the amendments without consulting the opposition – or the nation – and in response the Government turned to fringe candidates.

One of the members of the committee, that is supposed to include distinguished lawyers, is Jagoda Mitrevska, a minor politician who was in the past an open sympathizer of Vladimir Putin and attended events of the ruling Russian party.

For us the committee is a closed issue. But consider that there are members in it who glorify Mr. Putin, the President of the Russian Federation. The committee is created by politicians who on one hand publicly lash out against the Russian Federation and Putin, but in private they nominate acolytes of the Russian Federation and of Mr. Putin to this committee. And we are supposed to pay their salaries, Mickoski said. His party added in a press release that “after real experts refused to take part in this committee, Kovacevski gathered people who are neither experts or experienced in this field, but have dubious political connections”.

The committee also includes a number of die-hard SDSM party supporters as well as representatives of ethnic minority groups. Bulgaria demands that Macedonia amends its Constitution and includes the Bulgarian nation in its Preamble. According to VMRO-DPMNE, this Parliament does not have the mandate to make this move and if it is to be done, Bulgaria should also make reciprocal measures to protect its Macedonian minority.