Deputy Prime Minister Bojan Maricic insists that, despite the polls, VMRO-DPMNE will not win the coming elections, and therefore should agree on adopting the Bulgarian amendments to the Constitution. In the SDSM party, Maricic has been a proponent of forming a pre-election coalition with DUI and possibly the Alliance of Albanians, hoping that a coalition with Albanian parties will help SDSM negate the large lead VMRO has over them in the polls.

It is important that we use this year and the desire of the EU countries to put together an enlargement package of several countries. This is also important to the United States, and to the citizens of Macedonia, that we are in this package, Maricic said.

He accused VMRO of taking an “anti-European position” with its refusal to accept the amendments that Bulgaria demands from  Macedonia, and insists that VMRO will not win the elections and will not form the next Government – hinting that the Albanian parties will support the more conciliatory SDSM over VMRO.