Skopje, 12 October 2023 (MIA) – President Stevo Pendarovski told Telma TV on Thursday evening that if there is no two-third majority over the constitutional amendments by the end of the year, the issue should be decided by the next government coalition and new parliamentary composition.

“I was the first one who publicly said I am in favor of the French proposal because it doesn’t destroy Macedonia. And I will be in favor of [adopting the] constitutional amendments as soon as possible, until the end. I am not running away from that. The second option is, if we don’t have a chance to reach a two-third majority, if we assume we won’t be able to do this today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow… until the end of the year, we should push this aside, close the matter and let the future parliamentarian winner and coalition focus on this issue,” said Pendarovski.

Pendarovski assessed that the country has lost a year and a half on the constitutional amendments, despite the fact it was well-known that the necessary majority for their adoption in Parliament didn’t exist. “Time which,” he said, “we could’ve dedicated to internal reforms.”

“However, the government decided something else. Since then, I am the only one who has been realistically saying that I see no chance for the two blocs to get closer in order to reach that figure of 80 [MPs]. We aren’t closer to that figure today than we were two months or 12 months ago,” said the President.

Pendarovski does not believe that the country should give up on the issue, but he said it has wasted a lot of time focusing on the issues of Bulgaria and the Bulgarians in the Constitution.

“I really think we wasted time on an issue which is benign when it comes to its contents and what it would mean if we carry it out and add the Bulgarians to the Constitution. However, instead of prioritizing other topics, for almost a year and a half we have been focused only on Bulgaria, and this is wasted time,” said Pendarovski.

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