Skopje, 18 August 2023 (MIA) – By today’s vote against on adopting the parliamentary’s session agenda, the opposition confirmed that the concept of the EU has failed in the country, President Stevo Pendarovski said late Friday.

Speaking to Sitel TV, Pendarovski said that the opposition should say what alternative it offers and what it proposes, if it is against the constitutional amendments. For Pendarovski, it is also unclear "how the opposition tries to joke with such a powerful EU country as France and says that what is on the table is not a French proposal and a European framework, but a Bulgarian dictate.”

It is clear that at the moment, the ruling coalition does not have a two-thirds majority, but that does not mean that they will not secure it, the President noted.

“By today's vote against, the opposition confirms that the concept of the EU has failed in Macedonia. What else has the opposition offered as an alternative? Non-Aligned Movement? Neutrality? What are they proposing instead of what has failed today? What is the alternative? Their concept is - let us come to power, and then we will think about the two-thirds majority. It is not a political concept,” Pendarovski said.

“I think today's session, especially the vote when the agenda was adopted with 70 votes, confirms what we all knew before.

“It does not seem to me at all that the legitimacy of the Government has been lost because today's session ended in this way, nor do I think that if the same proposal was voted against last year and the Constitution was not revised, that elections should have been held again because the French proposal was not adopted, or the Constitution had not been revised. I think it is about several different things. We can rotate the political structures of power, but I don't see that we will gain something with rapid or short elections. We have not gained thus far. During Gruevski's time, we had 10 different elections in 10 years. And we became a captive state,” Pendarovski said.

He is certain that the second intergovernmental conference for North Macedonia’s EU accession will start when we complete the process of constitutional changes.

“Today, the question is not whether there will be new requirements or protocols, today the question we are voting on is whether to add the Bulgarians in the Constitution. That is what we are talking about today, and I think that the opposition is wrong,” Pendarovski said.

Photo: print screen