In a TV interview, VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski said that the party supports the Croatian model of a constitutional preamble that will state that Macedonia is the nation state of the Macedonians, with full rights for all minorities, listing all of the groups that were featured in the latest census – which would include the Bulgarians.

I think that after 30 years of defeats for the Macedonian people, the change of the flag, two name changes and multiple changes of the Constitution, it is time for other political subjects in Macedonia to give way. Here I primarily mean the political party DUI which has been enjoying the fruits of being in power for 20 years. It is time for the Macedonians to gain something – Macedonia as a nation state of the Macedonian people, Nikoloski said.

This would unblock the deadlock with Bulgaria, which demands that the Bulgarians are added to the Constitution before Macedonia can begin to progress toward the EU, but this proposal is unpalatable to the Albanians.  Nikoloski pointed to the numerous times DUI and SDSM officials proposed the Croatian Constitution as a model, but pointed only to the large number of minorities that are listed in it, and not to the fact that the Croatia is declared the nation state of the Croats.