Skopje, 20 April 2023 (MIA) – The contract on Corridors VIII and X-d is not a historic project, but debt slavery that the country is being pushed towards by DUI and SDSM’s Government, said VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski on Thursday.

“This is a historic robbery and debt slavery that Macedonia is being pushed towards by DUI’s Government supported by their minority partner SDSM. This is very important and the public needs to know this. Because the EUR 1.3 billion won’t be 1.3, and will easily increase and perhaps even double, because yesterday we said that we’ve managed to acquire a version of the contract through whistleblowers, and the whistleblowers claim that this is the version signed by the Government,” said Mickoski.

He stressed that VMRO-DPMNE has “absolutely nothing against the companies who managed to secure such a contract with the Government,” but, according to him, the problem lies with the Government “which places Macedonia in a subservient role”.

“It is a lie that the majority of workers will be from Macedonia, the workers from Macedonia will be a minority. Additionally, we published documents from the contract which require, even tho it’s unconstitutional, for the workweek to be increased from 40 to 60 hours. We also said that they’ve signed a contract according to which in case of dispute, it is not the Macedonian legislation that is valid, but the legislation of England and Wales, which is completely different from the Macedonian legislation. The Government is yet to deny or admit that this is the case,” said Mickoski.

Mickoski said that in the upcoming period, VMRO-DPMNE will continue to publish details from “the version of the contract” delivered to them by whistleblowers.

Asked to comment on the experts chosen to be a part of the constitutional changes working group, Mickoski labeled them as members of “SDSM and DUI’s family trees” and said he doesn’t expect anything from the working group, but he expects that the very beginning of the procedure in Parliament will fail.

“This will be one more failed policy of Kovachevski, followed by criminal responsibility for those who are being paid by the people and practically do nothing because their work is unfounded. I urge Kovachevski not to be a coward and to immediately submit an initiative to Parliament and have the MPs voice their position on this issue,” said Mickoski.

The VMRO-DPMNE leader reiterated that their coalition, which has 44 MPs in Parliament, will not support the initiative for the constitutional changes.

MIA Photo: Archive