Skopje, 8 April 2023 (MIA) - VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski reiterated Saturday that the party would not take part in the working group on the constitutional changes, saying the authorites wanted to politicize the process.

"We will not take part in the working group, as we have said on numerous occasions in the past, and we have also stated the reasons why the work of this group is entirely irrelevant at this stage. Legal experts have said this first step is practically determining the necessity for opening of the Constitution, and a constitutional committee will be set up if a two-thirds majority supports this in Parliament, followed by drafting of amendments etc. This is now totally irrelevant, they want to politicize the process. Let me repeat once again and I will not revisit this anymore: VMRO-DPMNE will not take part in the work of the commission set up by the Ministry of Justice that will draft the constitutional amendments," Mickoski told reporters.

Regarding VMRO-DPMNE's proposal for constitutional changes according to the Croatian model, Mickoski said Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and other Government ministers, as well as representatives of the international community had referred to it before "but the authorities are now backing off".

"While aware that we might suffer politically, we came out and said ok, we accept the Croatian model, so let's apply it in our Constitution, but now the Government is taking a step backward," said Mickoski.

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