VMRO-DPMNE will not support the census law proposed by the Zaev regime, said opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski, warning that it could leave Macedonia with three million citizens. The law proposes that long time emigrants from Macedonia are also counted among the residents, provided they get somebody close to them to report their details to the census workers. Macedonia hasn’t held a census since 2002, mainly because of demands from the ethnic Albanian parties that emigrants are counted as residents.

We will not recognize the census as it is proposed. We insist that we count the resident population, not some imaginary population, so that we can finally know how many people we have here, Mickoski said, warning that the full number may top three million. It’s estimated that the 2002 number of a little over two million residents is also wildly off the mark because of the high emigration rate.
Mickoski said that the law can’t be stopped with filibustering in the Parliament, but said that if it does go ahead, the next VMRO led Government will conduct a proper, credible census.

A law that can and will be filibustered, Mickoski said, is the proposal to issue citizenships under a new, exceptionally liberal regime that will only require several witnesses to state that the claimant has lived in Macedonia for a set period of time. This law is being proposed by the ethnic Albanian parties, with tacit support from SDSM.

This law is utterly unacceptable for us. We know the procedure, we will submit amendments to stop it from getting to the floor. There are international rules, there are criteria how a person becomes a citizen and that can’t be done with three witnesses. End of debate, Mickoski said.