The latest in the series of foreign dignitaries coming to Macedonia to push for constitutional amendments and acceptance of the Bulgarian demands and the trio of foreign ministers of Austria, Czhechia and Slovakia – Alexander Schellenberg, Jan Lipavsky and Miroslav Vlahovski. During their meetings in Skopje, they insisted that now is no time for delays or elections, and that the Macedonian parties, including the opposition VMRO-DPMNE, which holds the decisive votes in Parliament, should accept the Bulgarian demands.

VMRO organized a meeting of the ministers with their group in Parliament, during which party leader Hristijan Mickoski outlined the party’s reservations about the requested amendments and the problems they would create in Macedonia’s EU accession process.

The Government did not include the opposition in any part of the negotiations. Now it wants to ram through Parliament constitutional amendments written under Bulgarian ultimatum. Our group in Parliament again unanimously reiterated the position that we will not accept this to be done under dictate, and that the country should focus on immediate reforms instead. The position of the members of Parliament from VMRO-DPMNE and the Coalition for Renewal of Macedonia is that the Europeanization of Macedonia must not include renouncing the identity of the Macedonian people, inserting bilateral historic disputes into the process and toying with the national feelings of the Macedonian people, the opposition party said in a statement.

Members of the VMRO group in Parliament also discussed serious problems with the functioning of the country, and the high level of crime and corruption generated by the Government. The group also pointed out violations of democratic norms, such as using a Parliament procedure meant to adopt legislation needed for EU integration to change the law on gambling – something over which Austria and other countries have already reacted.