Skopje, 20 Juine 2023 (MIA) - The opposition made a 180-degree change in terms of its own claims in the past months, and at the leaders' meeting they didn't mention Bulgarian dictate, nor that this parliamentary composition doesn't have a mandate for constitutional changes. If they continue to stick to this new approach, without mentioning the nebulous claims that only as Bulgarians we can join the EU, then the number of 80 MPs required to adopt the constitutional amendments is not unattainable, President Stevo Pendarovski said in an interview with Faktor.  

"If we have included seven nations and parts of nations in our Constitution for 22 years, what damage can there be for the Macedonian people and identity if we include six more ethnic communities living here. Unfortunately, the opposition decided to care more about its rating than the strategic interests of the country, and that is the only reason why it is uncertain whether the Constitution will be changed," Pendarovski said, noting that at the leaders' meeting between Prime Minister and SDSM leader Dimitar Kovachevski and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, the largest opposition party accepted to join the Government and head five ministries, while being oinly against DUI taking part in such Government. 

President Pendarovski notes that from the very first day of the adoption of the negotiating framework in the Parliament, he was neither an optimist nor a pessimist, but a realist "who knows very well what the framework contains, and what are the positions of the two opposing blocs in relation to it."  

According to the President, the process of constitutional amendments has neither legal nor political correlation with possible early elections.

"We had a similar situation after the last local elections, when the opposition came out with an identical request, but both then and now, apart from arguments, there was no majority to dissolve the Parliament, and that is the only way to cause early elections," said Pendarovski. 

As regards the bills related to the Bechtel & Enka contract, Pendarovski said that a key fact for deciding to sign the decrees was that the amendments to the law on labor relations does not contain the provision that the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional last year, which stipulated that the working hours of each worker could be an average of 60 hours per week throughout the year. 

"The decrees that the President signs refer to the laws that have been passed in the Parliament, so, in this particular case, those decrees do not refer to the agreement between the Government and the Bechtel & Enka consortium, they do not refer to who will be part of the Supervisory Board that will supervise the construction of the highways, nor do they refer to any other aspect of the contractual relations between the state and those two private companies," the President pointed out. 

Commenting on the current developments in the Judicial Council, Pendarovski said that the situation in the judicial system clearly indicates that some type of vetting in the judiciary will be necessary in the near future. 

"Of course, the concept should be well-thought-out and implemented with expert support from the EU, because I doubt that only by using domestic resources we can fundamentally change the situation in that area," said the President. 

Commenting on his mandate as President so far, Pendarovski noted that "in the past four years, we had situations that without a doubt went beyond what we call the routine or usual political agenda and that put the whole country to a serious test, namely, the COVID-19 pandemic, when I declared a state of emergency several times because the Parliament was dissolved, and the Government was in a caretaker mandate". 

"Then the war in Ukraine, where we joined in active support, as NATO member, and of course, the European negotiating framework, which we adopted in a tense atmosphere, but with which we protected Macedonian national interests, identity and language and which enabled us to finally start the EU negotiations after 17 years," said Pendarovski.

However, he noted, the Macedonian citizens should have the final say regarding his work over the past year under such conditions. 

"I can only say that within my competences, I most sincerely and honestly committed myself with all my knowledge and skills to making decisions that will be in the interest of all our citizens," the President added.

Asked whether he is planning to run for a second term, Pendarovski said he believes it is still too early to make such a decision, given the fact that there is still almost a full year left of the mandate, which he wants to use to fully work in the interest of the citizens.

"Even during my first candidacy in 2014, I explained that in holding any public office, it is the least important whether you have ambitions. Far more important and ultimately decisive is whether you have support among the citizens, whether they believe in the given word that what you promise you will actually realize," Pendarovski told Faktor. 

Photo: MIA archive