Skopje, 19 August 2023 (MIA) - VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said at Saturday’s press conference that the elections are the only solution and that their red lines in relation to Bulgaria are clear.

“Many times we have spoken, many times we have stated our proposal, many times we have spoken about our red lines. At this moment, we are talking about holding early parliamentary elections as soon as possible. There is nothing on the table any more,” Mickoski answered a journalist's question on what if VMRO-DPMNE hypothetically won the elections and what would be the way out of this situation.

Commenting on Friday’s statement by Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski that the constitutional amendments are not under Bulgarian dictate, but a Macedonian proposal, he said that that statement is a loser and is not a political thesis.

“That statement is treacherous and a loser. It is not a political thesis. This is the thesis of a defeated politician who is seeing the end of his political career. If it was a Macedonian proposal then it would have come before the citizens in elections with that proposal or a referendum would have been held, and the Macedonian citizens would have given the legitimacy for that proposal. And what did he do? Hiding the proposal from the opposition, secretly, he negotiated and signed something that it was clear from the beginning that the Macedonian citizens did not support. So, that person has no right to speak about a Macedonian proposal. Macedonian proposal is given by the citizens and not Dimitar Kovachevski and Stevo Pendarovski,” Mickoski said.

According to him, VMRO-DPMNE cannot remain absent from reality, and they see the problem clearly.

“We are an opposition in Macedonia that is a Macedonian project, a project that aims to protect the interests of Macedonian citizens, and we behave that way. We absolutely listen to the messages from our partners from the international community, we absolutely listen to the messages from our partners from the EU, but also because we have found ourselves in this situation, they are also to blame. Because when they agreed this with this Government of SDSM and DUI, they did not find it appropriate to turn to VMRO-DPMNE and consult VMRO-DPMNE and the Macedonian people as the largest ethnic community in the country, Mickoski stressed.

According to Mickoski, the least Bulgaria can do is to implement the Strasbourg Court judgments.

“If you really want to add the Bulgarians in the preamble, in the preamble part of the Bulgarian people who live in Macedonia - part of the Macedonian nation in the preamble those 762 who said that Bulgarian is their mother tongue, then the least you can do is to ask Bulgaria to implement at least three of 14 judgments from the European Court of Human Rights, which are mandatory and have a deadline to be implemented this fall. Are we asking too much? We do not. This is the moment for the EU itself to correct the mistake into which Macedonia was plunged,” Mickoski said at the press conference.