In an Alfa TV interview, following the coordinated protests across Macedonia today, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski announced that the blockades of key intersections will continue until Zoran Zaev is made to give up on his plan to make new concessions to Bulgaria.

We block when things go wrong in this country, and the Government is pursuing wrong-headed policies. If we don’t revolt, Zaev will cleanly accept all demands. He has done nothing other than pursue wrong-headed policies, Mickoski said, warning that Zaev is on the verge of making a new deal with Bulgaria that will badly damage Macedonian interests.

The opposition leader warned that the deal that is being discussed will lead to having the Bulgarian claims on Macedonian national identity and history made official part of the EU accession process.

We asked SDSM to join us in formulating a response to the declaration of the Bulgarian Parliament, that would be adhered to by all parties in Macedonia. In response, I was attacked, and assured that the Bulgarian declaration is done simply for pre-election politicking. Now, two years later, we see that the content of that document is turned into a condition of opening EU accession talks laid before Macedonia. We will use all democratic means to prevent Zaev and his envoy Vlado Buckovski from accepting the declaration, Mickoski said.

The protests – in several key intersections in Skopje and in a dozen cities across Macedonia, will continue every day, from 15 to 17h.
In the Alfa TV interview, Mickoski added that Macedonia would have had a stronger case for its EU accession talks, but Zaev undermined it with his rampant corruption.

Had we done our homework, we would have left Bulgaria with no defensive arguments. But the problem is, we are barely reaching a passing grade, Mickoski said.