The leader of VMRO-DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, believes that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is the reason for the failure and the inability of Macedonia to start negotiations with the EU.

We were supposed to get a date for negotiations, but we got a veto. A veto, which is not only a blockade on the future, but also an expression of the exceptional incompetence of the Government, Zoran Zaev and his international policy. The reason for the failures is the crime, the lack of reforms and the economic devastation, everything else is just justification for the failure of the Government. After four years of lies, today it is clear that we have a government that cannot deliver a European future, but delivered a recession, veto and trading with identity. His ‘all in’ policy has done enormous damage and today there are talks on what should be our strongest foundation – identity. After so many failures, we have a prime minister who does not have the credibility to run the government and negotiate with Bulgaria. We simply cannot have so many failures without anyone being held accountable for anything. That is why the main obstacle for the talks with Bulgaria becomes exactly Zaev, who with his promises fuels the appetites of the neighboring countries, and he is not able to deliver results. I believe that the real solution at this moment is the resignation of Zaev, the state to be led by an expert government or a government of national salvation, and at the moment when conditions are created to hold elections. Any other membership in an organization like the European Economic Area is good and should happen, but there is no other alternative to membership in the bloc, just like the need to protect our identities along the way. I think that if a principled policy is pursued where it is clear what can be done and what not, and to have a prime minister without concessions, progress is possible, Mickoski told Deutsche Welle.