Skopje, 19 February 2024 (MIA) - The Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) will announce its presidential candidate this week. DUI leader Ali Ahmeti is not among the candidates, DUI member and Minister of Political System Artan Grubi said Monday.  

"Persuading Ahmeti is difficult. You know his attitude: "I am a missionary, not an official. I am not in a political party, nor in politics to get an office, but for my mission to be successful". And, we must all back down before that argument. But if you ask any DUI member, any DUI voter, of course they will opt for Ali Ahmeti," Grubi said in an interview with MRT 1's '360 Degrees'. 

He pointed out that DUI has not yet held a meeting over a presidential candidate, but several names are mentioned as possible candidates, starting with the party's vice-presidents, secretaries, and candidates who are not DUI members are also an option.

As regards media reports that Bujar Osmani will be DUI's presidential candidate, Grubi said Osmani would be an excellent candidate, but it has not been discussed or decided within the party.

"The Democratic Union for Integration has not yet decided on its candidate for the president of the state, because the issue has not been discussed within the party bodies. Bujar Osmani could be an excellent candidate. But he is not campaigning for a presidential candidate, because this has not been discussed or decided within DUI. However, a decision will have to be made soon, because the collection of signatures begins on February 23 and should last through March 8. So, this week we will find out who is DUI's candidate and who will be the winner in the Albanian block," said Grubi.  

He noted that before Arben Taravari had accepted the offer of the ethnic Albanian opposition to run for president, DUI had talks with him, as well as indirectly with the Albanian opposition, in order to come up with a joint candidate who would not be a member or supporter of the parties.

"But, unfortunately, that part of the Albanian opposition and Taravari when they joined, it turned out that they will run in the elections with a presidential candidate who is a leader of a political party, and so everything we were discussing before cancelled out - not having two Albanian candidates. We believed that it was very damaging to the processes in the country in terms of European integration," Grubi said. 

He added that DUI is still considering whether to have joint candidate lists with SDSM, pointing out that he does not want to be part of the candidate lists.

"DUI is currently in favor of talks with other coalition partners, the party of Hoxha, Thaci, Rexhepi Zeid and others, while with SDSM we had a meeting ten days ago, with the SDSM leader Kovachevski, and I think that we should also have a meeting this week, i.e. in the coming days, to see what results their polls show, what our polls show, to see what is the best way to run in the elections," said Grubi. 

According to him, DUI does not hope for a pre-election coalition with Zijadin Sela's wing from the Alliance for Albanians, and if DUI participates in the elections independently, it expects to win 15 to 17 MP seats.

Regarding the split in the Alliance for Albanians, he says that VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski has managed to split the party and that Taravari will lean towards VMRO-DPMNE.

Grubi expects that about 200,000 voters from the Albanian bloc would turn out for the elections, of which over 100,000 would vote for DUI. 

Asked how likely it is to form a coalition government with VMRO-DPMNE, Grubi does not rule out the possibility, but on the condition that the constitutional amendments are passed first.

"If VMRO-DPMNE votes for the constitutional amendments before the formation of the government, why not. If it has reformed enough, if it is European-oriented, if it proves that it is ready to sacrifice its so-called rating, for the good of the country, as SDSM did in the past, then – yes, it deserves a chance. But if it maintains the position that neither before nor after, nor in the next elections will there be any constitutional changes, then what would DUI look for in such a government or in a government with a partner who sees alternative solutions to the EU. There is no alternative in DUI. There is no alternative to the EU, NATO and the strategic friendship with the United States," Grubi pointed out. 

He adds that DUI is considering to have the constitutional amendments passed first after the elections, and then have the formation of a government.

A possible post-election coalition of VMRO-DPMNE with the opposition bloc of ethnic Albanians, according to Grubi, will mean isolating the state again.

"It's a bad scenario for the country, it's a bad scenario for the citizens. We will enter a so-called Bulgarian scenario with repeating elections and election cycles while losing the European perspective. This year is an election year in almost the whole world, mostly in the EU and the United States. I don't know how much time our citizens have to stay in the status quo and not move forward, because the status quo means regression, not progress," Grubi said. 

Asked why the amendments to the Electoral Code have not been approved, Grubi said the answer to that question should be sought with the opposition.

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