Our people calls their country Macedonia and will continue to do so, as they have been historically accustomed to do. Imposed solutions can’t hold, said former Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The failure to open the accession talks exacerbated the political crisis in Macedonia and sparked early elections now scheduled for April 2020. Milososki blamed the Zaev Government for the failure in Brussels, especially for failing to secure the necessary guarantees before giving up the name in the Prespa treaty.

To sign a treaty of such crucial importance, without requiring strong guarantees before you do, is like allowing the surgeon to amputate your leg without asking for a second or third opinion. Our Government did just such a mistaken. They signed a treaty in which Macedonia grants Greece unbelievable concessions. Our citizens were manipulated. They were assured that the treaty will secure us EU membership. Such was the propaganda before the name change. But the reality turned out differently. France and some other member states see the enlargement as a burden, not a priority. In such circumstances securing full membership becomes impossible in the coming decade, a possibly longer, Milososki says.

The German paper asked Milososki how will the VMRO-DPMNE party position itself toward the name change treaty, especially now in light of the refusal of the EU to allow the opening of accession talks. He outlines the processes through which the Prespa treaty can be overturned. These include a challenge before the Constitutional Court on the basis of the fact that the voters rejected the treaty at a referendum. Additionally, an investigation into the pressure and blackmail that was used to get nine members of Parliament for the opposition to vote in favor of the name change can also be used.

They voted against their free will, they faced prison sentences on charges from the Special Prosecutor’s Office and judges controlled by the Government. If they muster courage following the change of the Government to speak out publicly and appeal to the state prosecutors we could alter the atmosphere and annul the vote to amend our Constitution, Milososki says.

Pressed that this are unlikely events, Milososki replies that what is clear is that the citizens rejected the Prespa treaty.

Our people calls their country Macedonia and will continue to do so, as they have been historically accustomed to do, based on our right to self-determination. Imposed solutions can’t outlast the will of the people, the former Foreign Minister says.

Despite the name change, the Zaev Government failed to secure the date to open accession talks. Milososki called on the EU to provide guarantees that the enlargement process is still in place, in order to secure the European perspective of the region

The EU enlargement process is clinically dead. In the next two to three years we will see whether there is political will in the EU to revive it again. It is more and more difficult for Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Macedonia to believe in their perspective of full membership, and to orient their policies in that direction. We need a clarification at some of the coming EU – Western Balkans summits. Naive promises are not good enough. A good opportunity to prove that the needed reforms in the Balkans are respected would be to allow at least partial use of the EU structural funds, Milososki told FAZ.