Skopje, 6 July 2023 (MIA) – Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani said that there are talks about the constitutional amendments with people in VMRO-DPMNE, part of the party's ideological wing and people in the parliamentary group.

“Yes. However, that's why I said it is a whole ideological line, people who are debating there and people between the parliamentary group,” Osmani said in an interview with Kanal 5 TV, adding that those MPs talk to their MPs on a daily basis.

“The understanding is clear, firstly, that this is a good solution for us, this is the best formal manifestation of our narrative in relation to Bulgaria, that those three thousand here are a minority community that should have all the rights and privileges in such a relationship with the majority Macedonian people and of course the rest of the people. And, secondly, what also gives me optimism – they understand the consequences,” Osmani said.

When asked who those people (MPs) are, Foreign Minister Osmani said that he hopes to see them on the day of when constitutional amendments will be voted.

“Because one thing should be clear to us. Without constitutional changes, we should forget about the European Union. If anyone is ready to bury the European future, tell me how we will continue without the European Union. Until now, you will say, that's how we were before,” Osmani said.

If the constitutional amendments are not adopted, he noted that for the first time relations with the EU will be formally terminated and that there will be no further negotiations.

Commenting on the statement of the VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski that Osmani dreams that one of the MPs of the opposition party will support constitutional amendments, Foreign Minister Osmani said that perhaps Mickoski will wake up when he sees the constitutional amendments being adopted on television.

“I said on one occasion that I first heard the idea of constitutional amendments as a solution to relations with Bulgaria from a high-ranking VMRO-DPMNE official, and that at the beginning only when I was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs, I started consulting with people and invited high VMRO-DPMNE officials  and was also there, at that discussion the idea was expressed that we made a mistake in 2001 when the Constitution was changed that we did not include the Bulgarians then. His position was that until now there would have been a clear and formal distinction in relation to the majority Macedonian people and the Bulgarian minority, which would have taken shape, form, etc. And that's how that idea was developed. Bulgarians were against at first. So, it was the time of Borisov's government, they absolutely rejected it as a way of solving the problem so that it then entered the machine as a kind of solution. That line, that ideological line that gave the proposal exists there and those discussions,” Osmani said.

In regard to the remark that there is no two-thirds majority in the Parliament for constitutional amendments, and the Government has accepted this obligation, Osmani said, "We accepted the obligation with the Prespa Agreement that we will change the Constitution and we changed the Constitution." When asked whether it will be the same now, he answered, "of course."

Osmani said that if the constitutional amendments fail, they cannot be held responsible because "a political leadership that puts the entire country, the future, the citizens hostage to its political career".

”Those who hinder the European future of the country, isolate it in these difficult geopolitical developments in our continent and in Europe and place it in a group of countries with open issues that should first resolve bilateral issues, and then continue, should bear responsibility,” Osmani underlined.

FM Osmani said that elections will be held in the regular term next year in June or May and that the citizens will decide who had honest intentions and who made sacrifices.

Photo: MIA archive