President Stevo Pendarovski met with French Ambassador to Macedonia Christian Thimonier, as part of the frantic efforts of the Zaev Government to get France to approve the opening of EU accession talks.
Macedonia yesterday received a positive recommendation from the European Commission to open accession talks, but the liberal leaders of France and the Netherlands, as well as the leading German conservative party, seem unwilling to allow the opening of accession talks, at least not in June, as Zaev promised.
We expect support from the French Republic to make our next step – open accession talks with the European Union, Pendarovski’s office said in a press release after the meeting.
In a recent WSJ interview, Pendarovski famously threatened France and other European countries that he will open the borders for migrants as well as criminals from Macedonia if the accession talks don’t begin soon.
Some Zaev supporters have publicly blamed French Islamophobia for the move, citing the large Muslim populations of Macedonia and Albania as the reason the two countries are facing this new obstacle. Others insist that the liberal French and Dutch politicians are simply playing a role in front of their voters to avoid pushing them toward the more nationalist political parties, and will quietly approve the accession talks now that the EU elections are done.
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