Skopje, 6 May 2024 (MIA) - ZNAM Movement leader Maksim Dimitrievski said at a press conference Monday that ZNAM representatives have not discussed potential coalitions with any political entity so far. Dimitrievski said the party would first wait for the election results and then make a decision over any future steps.

“I responsibly claim that up until this moment, not a single representative of the ZNAM Movement has had any discussions over any potential coalitions with any political entities. Unfortunately, we extended a hand to SDSM’s leadership with certain demands which they couldn’t rise up to and, by protecting their own personal interests, are putting social democracy at stake, while swearing by their own alleged social democracy and rejecting us and the citizens. We haven’t spoken with VMRO-DPMNE, nor with any other political entity in the country,” Dimitrievski said.

Asked if the party will endorse VMRO-DPMNE's presidential candidate, Dimitrievski said his position is clear – he said he wouldn’t repeat the mistake he made at the 2019 presidential elections when he voted for Stevo Pendarovski. However, he reiterated that the party’s members should vote based on their own convictions. Dimitrievski said he believes it is essential that a president is elected in order to avoid any potential political crisis.

“My position is clear. I publicly apologized to the citizens for backing Stevo Pendarovski in the previous term and I won’t be repeating that mistake, but that’s my own, personal position. Regarding the vote of ZNAM’s members, we are a democratic party, and on the basis of that democracy within the party I urge the citizens to vote based on their own convictions, for whichever candidate they believe they should give their support to,” Dimitrievski said.

The party’s leader said he expects ZNAM to repeat its results from the first round of the presidential elections, adding that he expects the party to get even more votes.

“We can’t speculate what the figure will be because the turnout would have to be calculated as well. We expect greater turnout from the citizens, but, either way, support for the ZNAM Movement at the coming parliamentary elections is support from the citizens, and we will be exclusively at their service and in their coalition,” Dimitirievski said.

Asked if ZNAM would join a potential government coalition considering they are committed to deferred enforcement of the constitutional amendments, while all parties of the ethnic Albanians demand the amendments be adopted, Dimitrievski said if they are a part of the future government, they wish to be in a coalition with parties of the Albanians which would accept their conditions.

“Our position on the constitutional amendments is clear. When it comes to cooperation within the government and what composition we would be a part of, we would like to have Albanian parties that would accept these conditions. Otherwise, Macedonia is a unitary, independent and sovereign country which makes all its decisions based on the Constitution and the law. Any majority of more than 61 MPs can form a Government. The ethnic composition of the government will be defined based on the future government partners. It is necessary that we have a representative of the monoethnic Albanian parties in the government, but of course I also don’t exclude the possibility of higher level cooperation between the monoethnic and multiethnic parties like ZNAM,” Dimitrievski said. 

Photo: MIA