Even after making all those concessions with our national interest, they were unable to receive a date to open, not close, but open the EU accession talks, said VMRO-DPMNE deputy leader Aleksandar Nikoloski. He cited the concessions which the Zaev regime made the Prespa treaty – imposing a new name on Macedonia, and with the agreement with Bulgaria, and compared them to the negative outcome of the summit in Brussels today.

The best thing Zaev could do now is to resign, Nikoloski said, so that we can at least try and save something in 2020, under a VMRO-DPMNE led Government.

He cited the numerous corruption cases and the failure to request decoupling from Albania, as the main reasons Macedonia was able to fritter away the international good will generated by the Prespa treaty.

According to Nikoloski, the outcome of this push was known way in advance, and European officials would inform Macedonian politicians of the coming outcome, but still, the Government did not reposition itself, by asking for a clear decoupling from Albania, by implementing reforms and most of all, refraining from corruption. Nikoloski said that, even while being persecuted by the Zaev Government, VMRO-DPMNE did all it could to lobby for enlargement.

At this point, the most skeptical toward enlargement are the left wing, the liberal politicians, who are allied with SDSM. The ones who are pushing for enlargement are from the European People’s Party whose leader Joseph Daul was the only European party leader to send a letter in support of the accession date. No socialist or liberal leader did this. Angela Merkel is the head of the biggest power in EU, also from EPP, Viktor Orban and the Visegrad Four are either EPP or conservative. The only ones who lobbied for Macedonia were our friends from the right. We did more than we could but at the same time we can’t fool them and hide the fact that they are dealing with a corrupt gang, Nikoloski said in an interview with the Lider news site.

The main opposition to enlargement came from two ALDE led countries – France and the Netherlands.