I would liken the political system in the RSM to the political system in Russia and Belarus, there political parties exist, but there is no choice. We had seven candidates, two representatives of the Albanian parties, five representatives of the so-called Macedonian parties. All five of them had the same messages, they competed to see who could insult Bulgaria more - that was the competition.
This is what Associate Professor Spas Tashev from the Institute for Human and Population Research at the BAS said in the studio of "The Day ON AIR".
According to him, the turnout was 48.5%.
"There was a very strong mobilization of the Macedonian electorate. 60% voted there, at the same time the Albanians realized that they had no chance to elect a president, which is why the Albanian voter turnout was 30%. However, we will not have such results in the second round of the presidential elections, when the parliamentary elections are also held. Then there will be a much higher voter turnout among the Albanian population in the RSM," Tashev added for Bulgaria ON AIR.
He does not rule out the possibility of changes.
"It is possible to reverse the result, the Albanian parties have declared that they will not support a Macedonian party that is against the European election. VMRO-DPMNE is formally for European Macedonia, but with the idea of revising the Ohrid Treaty, the Prespa Treaty, the Treaty with Sofia. It means forever cross of PCM's dreams. from this point of view - VMRO-DPMNE is leading North Macedonia to a catastrophe, or rather to the sphere of Serbian influence, which is its main goal", commented the guest.
Tashev recalled that practice shows that no Macedonian party can independently form a government without Albanian support.
"I am almost certain that there will be pressure on Hristijan Mickoski and the other leaders of VMRO-DPMNE to soften their tone in order to be more acceptable to the EU. VMRO-DPMNE is a formation created by Milosevic, controlled these days by Putin. In any case, there will be very bad messages towards Bulgaria, although on the last day of the elections we noticed that the topic of Bulgarians was removed from the agenda. And in Bulgaria we have 2 in 1 elections, but I have not heard a single word spoken about the subject of Macedonia", he stressed.
Spas Tashev is adamant that Skopje is currently counting on the fact that the next EU presidency will be taken over by Hungary: "We know how the former prime minister of the RSM was taken to Budapest in a Hungarian diplomatic car, how he delivered a message there. Part of the media is under the control of Hungary".