Athens, 10 July 2022 (MIA) - Given our deep political polarization, there is a slim chance that any political party will be able to muster a two-thirds majority in the parliament to support changes to Constitution to include the Bulgarians in it, President Stevo Pendarovski said in an interview with Ethnos.gr, MIA’s Athens correspondent reported. In the interview with news portal Ethnos.gr on Sunday, President Pendarovski referred to the French proposal, solution between Skopje and Athens and the relations between the two countries, the Russian influence in the region and the war in Ukraine, North Macedonia’s views in regard to the relations between Greece and Turkey, but also about how often he is visiting the southern neighbour. As regards the French proposal, he explained the next steps that would follow on the road to the EU. “I have already referred to it as a kind of transitional compromise with an inherent roadblock. Namely, we will open negotiations, and this is the biggest benefit of the amended French proposal, starting negotiations after 17 years of waiting. However, after screening process, there is a condition for continuing negotiations, which is to amend the Constitution to include Bulgarians in it. Given our deep political polarization, there is a slim chance that any political party will be able to muster a two-thirds majority in the parliament to support changes,” Pendarovski said. In the interview, he spoke about the Prespa Agreement thus underscoring that our greatest achievement is joining NATO as a direct result of the Prespa Agreement. “In my country many people realized that the name change did not undermine our national identity, which was our biggest concern during the many years of negotiations.” In addition, Pendarovski added that the agreement opened up new possibilities for economic and trade exchanges and foreign direct investment in both directions. The Alexandroupolis natural gas connection is just the latest example of a joint venture that is expected to bring mutual benefits to the two countries, he said. President Pendarovski voiced hope that soon the three memoranda will be ratified by the Greek parliament, which will pave the way for many more bilateral agreements to come into force. “All these documents are important in order to strengthen the legal basis of our cooperation, in addition to the policy, which has improved a lot in recent years,” he added. In regard to recently held NATO Summit in Madrid, Pendarovski said that the war in Ukraine fully dictated the Summit's agenda. “In essence, two key decisions of the Summit were provoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine: first, the new strategic concept of NATO where Russia was defined as the biggest security threat to the Alliance and second, an invitation to Sweden and Finland to join the organization. In short: Russian war in Ukraine had completely changed the geopolitical landscape of the continent,” he said. Pendarovski noted, “Russia is producing the most serious hybrid threats to the Balkan region, including political propaganda and disinformation campaigns." “Precisely, in North Macedonia, the complexity and intensity of the hybrid threats is similar to the ones seen in 2018 during our referendum on the name issue. I do not have information about other Western Balkan countries, but, few fragile spots in the region are well known and Moscow will certainly try to penetrate deeper into them,” Pendarovski said. In respect to the Greek-Turkish relations, President Pendarovski said that both countries are our close allies within NATO, and we have close historical connections with both of them. Balanced and predictable relations within Greece and Turkey are crucial for the stability of the Balkans, Mediterranean and the Middle East, but for the overall posture of the Alliance as well. When asked if he is optimistic about a second term as the president of North Macedonia, Pendarovski said that since day one, he has been always focused on managing "through the troubled waters of domestic and international politics", on behalf of my country, the best I can.