Skopje, 13 June 2023 (MIA) - A shift in the general picture regarding the constitutional revision is taking place, considering that the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE did not even want to discuss about the possibility of changing the Constitution before, said President Stevo Pendarovski on Tuesday.

President Pendarovski told a joint press conference with visiting Slovenian counterpart Nataša Pirc Musar that the change of the opposition's stance was evident after the leaders' meeting, while assessing VMRO-DPMNE's demand for delayed enforcement of the constitutional amendments as unrealistic, since the EU Council conclusions are crystal clear - constitutional revision followed by second Intergovernmental Conference and opening of clusters.

"The main demand is that the small Bulgarian national minority is incorporated in the Constitution. A leaders' meeting took place recently between the highest representatives of the ruling authorities and the opposition, with the leader of the largest opposition party expressing readiness to join the Government and vote for the constitutional amendments, while setting other prerequisites that are not settled for the time being. However, this is a significant shift in the behavior of the opposition, which is crucial for the two-thirds majority in Parliament," Pendarovski told reporters.

He added his surprise when hearing that the main opposition party would want to join the Government by heading five departments and voting from that position.

On the statements of Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and VMRO-DPMNE's Hristijan Mickoski after the meeting and who accepted what, the President said if one closely followed both statements, "both parties are right".

"The PM is right when claiming there has been a drastic shift in the stance of the opposition party, which had not accepted to even vote on the implementation of constitutional changes under Bulgarian dictate, while repeating that MPs have no mandate for this. On the other hand, the opposition is right when it comes to the prerequisites it set at the meeting," said Pendarovski.

Regarding one of the conditions - the delayed enforcement of the constitutional amendments up until the completion of the ratification process of North Macedonia's EU accession protocol - the President said this was absolutely unrealistic.

"I would like to see the same thing as well, but the Council conclusions are crystal clear - the constitutional amendments must be made by the end of the screening process, in order to move by automatism to the second Intergovernmental Conference and opening of negotiating clusters. These conclusions incorporate Bulgaria's position as well. The opposition's demand requires new conclusions, which is entirely unrealistic. I hope this is not an excuse only for the purpose of avoiding the constitutional revision process," underlined Pendarovski.