Skopje, 31 July 2023 (MIA) — This is a rare historic moment that will set a long-term course for the country so party and personal agendas and careers are not as important as everyone's responsibility for the country's future, Foreign Minister and vice president of DUI Bujar Osmani said in a Telma TV appearance speaking about the conditional resignations to be officially tendered by DUI ministers in response to VMRO-DPMNE demands.

Osmani said the resignations would be formally offered to the prime minister at a government session Tuesday and signed individually by each of the five government ministers from the ranks of DUI. 

The resignations, he said, would automatically be activated as soon as Parliament adopts the constitutional amendments, in line with the recent public letter from DUI's leader.

"We have fulfilled all the demands of the opposition one by one," Osmani said. "They asked for guarantees. They got them from the international community. They asked for the ouster of DUI. They got it through a decision that will automatically come into effect. Everyone needs to show responsibility in these important moments," he said.

Osmani said every party was expected to make sure the country remained on the European path. "Then we will go to the polls," he added. 

"The moment the changes are adopted to ensure the citizens' European future, we will go to the polls. We are ready to fulfill every one of their demands in order [for Parliament] to adopt the constitutional amendments," he said.

Asked about the opposition's statement that the announced resignations were just a trick, Osmani called on them to see if this was so by voting for the constitutional amendments. Then, he reiterated, the DUI ministers' and other government officials' resignations would be activated automatically.

He said that he wanted to see North Macedonia enter the European Union together with Albania and Montenegro, "fulfilling the citizens' dream of a better life." 

"Most importantly, our passport will not be less important than the passports of neighboring countries that are in the EU. The most patriotic act you can do today is to ensure a European future for our citizens," Osmani said.

He said the opposition had back-pedalled on the constitutional amendments and kept changing their minds because they could not offer any valid reasons against them.

I response to a question on a possible snap election should the constitutional changes not pass by November, Osmani said he was confident the amendments would go through.

"The constitutional amendments will succeed because it is the will of the citizens for EU membership. No one has managed to break that will in these 30 years, so they will not manage to do it now, either. 

"We won the first battle. We reassured the citizens that there is nothing controversial in the constitutional amendments. I believe that, battle after battle, we will succeed in adopting the constitutional amendments before the election," Osmani said.

He again dismissed the possibility of an early election, saying it will be held in the spring.

"Until then," he said, "we will work to ensure a European future for our citizens and we will succeed because the citizens stand behind us," Osmani said. mr/