VMRO-DPMNE deputy leader Aleksandar Nikoloski said that Macedonia is paying the price of the debts outgoing Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has toward Albania. Macedonia was expected to be given a date to open EU accession talks at the June and then the October European Council, but ultimately it was left stuck in a group with Albania.
Nikoloski discussed the issue during meetings at the EPP summit in Zagreb and said that Macedonia wants Albania to prosper and that VMRO has good ties with the Albanian conservatives, but the group is badly damaging for Macedonia. Nikoloski warns that Zaev as unable to push to have the two countries decoupled because he is so reliant on ethnic Albanian voters and the support of Albanian parties provided with the help of Prime Minister Edi Rama.
There are many things that bring Zaev adn Rama together. Corruption is one, crime another, there is the marijuana. Both we as VMRO-DPMNE and the Democratic Party of Albania oppose them on these issues. We want Albania to be as successful and developed as Macedonia is, or even more, because we need successful neighbors. But Albania is mired in corruption and has strong structural problems. Put together all the problems Macedonia has, it would still need a total amateur or someone with serious baggage like Zaev, to agree to have Macedonia lumped in with Albania, Nikoloski said in Zagreb.
Discussing the meetings that VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski and other party officials had with European leaders, Nikoloski said that the next EPP party leader Donald Tusk fully supports having VMRO-DPMNE lead Macedonia forward. Nikoloski said that Tusk is informed about the developments in Macedonia and will strongly support VMRO-DPMNE at the coming early general elections.
We discussed all the failures of the SDSM Government but at the same time we are lobbying for a push forward in the EU accession process, so that we don’t have our citizens held hostage to the bad policies, Nikoloski said.
Comments are closed for this post.