Skopje, 2 November 2022 (MIA) – VMRO-DPMNE will attend a meeting of the leaders of political parties only if it concerns the current issues of the citizens, and not the constitutional amendments, on which the party position remains unchanged and there can be no amendments in these conditions, said the leader of the party, Hristijan Mickoski, on Wednesday. “We still haven't received an invitation, we don't know the format of the leaders’ meeting, we don't know the content or the topics of discussion, but my advice to the government and to Kovachevski is that if a meeting is held, it should be about the real issues of the citizens, such as the hard life, the economic situation, the low wages and pensions, high inflation, the potential energy crisis… These are the essential topics we should discuss in order to overcome the issues. If someone thinks they can impose polarizing topics, such as the constitutional amendments, and that we will attend the meeting, then they are fooling themselves, because the public knows VMRO-DPMNE’s position and it remains unchanged – there can be no constitutional amendments in these conditions,” said Mickoski in response to a journalist’s question. According to him, the topic of the constitutional amendments is a topic which polarizes instead of uniting. “I advise the government that if it intends to convene a meeting, it should be a meeting focused on the current problems of the citizens. If they think they can forcibly amend the Constitution, as they did with Prespa, they cannot, I guarantee you that,” said Mickoski. He further added he doesn't expect that the government will accept his advice and will instead try to impose the constitutional amendments. If they don't attend the meeting, he said, the government will accuse VMRO-DPMNE of being against EU integrations. According to him, it is in the interest of the party to discuss a single electoral district and snap elections, but, he noted, they are ready to put these issues aside in order to discuss the real issues of the citizens, as well as the country’s debt. Mickoski said he believes that if the government had 80 MPs, as it has been claiming since August, then there would be no need for a leaders’ meeting and the constitutional amendments would have already been in Parliament. When asked to comment on the statement made by First Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi, that the government has a majority of 80 MPs for the constitutional amendments, he said that if they are so certain, they should put the initiative to Parliament in order to see if they have 80 votes. As regards removing the “20 percent” provision of the Constitution on the use of languages, which the parties from the Albanian bloc have been calling for, Mickoski said that the fact they are asking for a bicameral parliament is even more frightening, because, according to him, that would mean de jure and de facto federalization. “That is a very wrong move and a violation of Macedonia’s unitary character, because neither Europe, nor the world, need another Bosnia, another dysfunctional state in the Balkans. We oppose this and we have said that it is a red line which we are prepared to defend with all means and tools available to us as a political party. We can discuss the Badinter principle, the balancer, the reduction of the 20 percent threshold to 5, 10, 15 percent if we want to be a real civil society, so that the Turks and Serbs and Bosniaks and Roma people can speak their languages in the municipalities where the thresholds are met. That is the essence of the Framework Agreement, to demonstrate the multi-ethnic character of the country, and not to make Macedonia a binational state, we oppose that,” said Mickoski. The government said on Tuesday that Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski will send invites Wednesday to the parliamentary political parties for a leaders’ meeting, at which the European future of the country will be discussed, as well as the decisions to be made, with a wide political and social consensus, in Parliament in the upcoming period. The meeting is expected to be held in Parliament on Monday, November 7. ad/nn/