Prime Minister of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski attacked Bulgaria for the second consecutive day, questioning the negotiation framework with the European Union, hinting that Bulgarian MEPs behave like people from the Middle Ages, and stating that he will not back down an inch from his government's demands.

He said that the condition for changing the Constitution had been accepted by the previous government with the ‘French proposal’ and that this was a fact, but that it was up to the current government to come up with a strategy on how to overcome this ‘without allowing new demands.’

'I don't know if you are aware, but in Bulgaria there is a committee that includes representatives of the Roma, Turkish and Armenian minorities. Don't we Macedonians, who have 14 rulings from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, deserve a place on this committee, and do they deserve a place in our preamble? Until I see a Macedonian who is part of this committee, and we must all work for this, I will not budge an inch while I am Prime Minister of this government,' Mickoski sain in response to a question from MP Oliver Spasovski of the Social Democratic Union (SDSM) on the country's European integration and the condition for constitutional changes to include Bulgarians in the Constitution.

After this statement, Mickoski received applause in parliament from MPs and ministers from the VMRO-DPMNE ranks.
The Prime Minister also announced that Foreign Minister Timcho Mucunski will hold a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Mucunski is in the United States to celebrate the anniversary of the Dayton Agreement.

Mickoski called on the opposition to lobby together with the ruling majority before MEPs to vote in favour of the report on the country, which mentions Macedonian identity and language.
'As a government, when you have this in front of you, you sit down and make a strategy and say whether we are in this game to get to the starting line or to finish the race. If you look at it from a state perspective and more broadly, then you will say what the citizens and the state gain. Considering that the foreign minister of our eastern neighbour said that this is only the beginning, not the end of the demands, we will see what happens next. When you have this fact, then it is logical to create a strategy for the future, and as a government we are creating a strategy for the future,' Mickoski said.

The VMRO-DPMNE party leader emphasised that the first test is for EU member states to adopt a document on minority rights prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of the Republic of Macedonia and to see how Bulgaria will react.
'But before that, there is another introduction, namely the report by the rapporteur (Thomas Weitz – EP) on the situation here in Macedonia, which will be presented to European parliamentarians on Wednesday, where they will talk about the special centuries-old Macedonian identity and the special Macedonian language, which are linked to the nation, and not with the territory of the state, and this is very important because there are Macedonians all over the world. We will see how the parliamentarians (in the EP) coming from Bulgaria will behave. From what we have as information and the amendments that have been proposed, I am not optimistic about their pro-European behaviour, but rather it looks like behaviour from the Middle Ages. This report states that we have a unique Macedonian identity, different from theirs – not since 1945, but centuries before that – and the Macedonian language. There (in the EP), they vote by majority, not unanimously, and so I ask the opposition, which is part of certain political families that have MEPs, to lobby for its adoption,' the Prime Minister of North Macedonia continued.

Hristijan Mickoski emphasised that in this way, for the first time in history, the European Parliament will include in a report a separate 'centuries-old' Macedonian identity linked to the nation and the Macedonian language, on which a vote is to be held in July. | BGNES