In a Kanal 5 TV interview, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski said that he will continue to fight to make sure that historic issues are not placed before Macedonia as condition of EU membership. Mickoski’s comments come after the meeting of party leaders on Monday, where they discussed the Bulgarian demands and conditions.

I will fight to ensure that the negotiations of the historic commission are not conditions for Macedonia’s EU membership, just as historic issues were not conditions for other candidate countries. The Polish – German historic commission works to this day. Our nation, the citizens of Macedonia, continue to hear that there is always one more condition. From that shameful interim name that we carried for many years, the change of the state flag, the amendments of the Constitution, our victory in the Hague court that was later denied to us and the rule of might was used against us, to the forced amending of the Constitution and the forced renaming. The latest Bulgarian demand to include the Bulgarians in the Constitution won’t be the last, Mickoski said.

He warned that continued historic negotiations and the rewriting of Macedonian history according to Bulgarian demands will just open additional issues and will extend the dispute into the more recent historic periods.

The Government does not have the votes to implement the Bulgarian demands in the Parliament and relies on VMRO. Mickoski responded that, since this is the case, the ruling coalition should agree to early elections that would put the issue to the voters. “Zaev and Kovacevski did not run in an election on this issue. Let’s put it before the voters, and see if they support including the Bulgarians in the Constitution”, Mickoski added.