Former Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki called on the current Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov to publish the reports Macedonian embassies have sent ahead of the European Council meeting, if he wants to deny the claims that some half a dozen EU member states opposed the opening of accession talks.

Milososki listed the countries who were opposed during the Luxembourg meeting of foreign ministers yesterday. But, media outlets close to the ruling SDSM party accused Milososki of making the list up.

The ministers did not accept the Macedonian request to open accession talks in June, which indicates at least some countries were opposed. And Commissioner Johannes Hahn, during his press conference, said that “a minority of countries” were against opening accession talks at this moment. Still, Milososki is faced with calls to resign because of his comments, which pro-SDSM outlets qualified as “fake news”.

I accept to resign a day after Zoran Zaev, Bujar Osmani and Nikola Dimitrov resign for spreading fake news in June 2018 that Macedonia has a date to open accession talks in June 2019. It is pitiful how Prime Minister Zaev manipulated the Macedonian public last June. I regret that Macedonia was not allowed to open accession talks in 2009, when we received the first positive recommendation from the European Commission, due to the blockade from the Greek side. Last year the Government even threw a party to celebrate its EU and NATO accession, 180.000 EUR were spent on this, and we were told we have a date, Milososki replied.