Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani responded to accusations by Vice President of the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, Aleksandar Nikolovski, who told Sitel TV on Saturday it seemed to him that Osmani’s policy was more in the interest of Albania than Macedonia.

According to Osmani, such statements not only cross the red lines of decency, but “without a shred of responsibility, casually and voluntarily, attack the overall state position and the success of the entire political spectrum to unite around strategic issues.”

Virtually all citizens, whether Macedonians, Albanians, Roma, Turks, Serbs, Vlachs or Bosniaks, virtually all citizens are united in defense of the state interests and the national interests of our fellow Macedonians. One of the key foundations on which our strength rests in the negotiations with Bulgaria, but also in the representation of our positions in the EU and among the member states, is precisely the unity of the entire political, ethnic, cultural and social spectrum in the country.

I am aware that the struggle for political points is tough and unpleasant, we are all politicians and we are fighting to win the sympathy of our voters, but to allow yourself to attack and try to endanger the key state pillar on which solidarity rests in our positions, it speaks not only of irresponsibility, but of a kind of pathology in the essence of which lies a deep-rooted Albanophobia, said Osmani.

Osmani asks how greedy someone should be and not respect or love the state in order to attack its essential benefit – successful multiethnic unity in strategic interests.

The intention of these theses is clear, which, I hope, are not positions of VMRO-DPMNE. By attacking the Albanians as if they were enemies of this country, an attempt is made to create an ethnic gap on strategic issues, to create discord along ethnic lines, in order to weaken the position of the state and thus ensure a political advantage for the opposition. Our task is to show it, to point it out loud and clear, and thus to thwart them. I assure you that they will not succeed: we will preserve the national interests of our fellow Macedonians, we will preserve the Macedonian language and the uniqueness of the Macedonian culture and decency, and at the same time we will provide a European future for the country and all its citizens, says Osmani .