There will be no constitutional changes in the Republic of North Macedonia until at least two conditions are met, said the country's Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski from the parliamentary rostrum in response to a parliamentary question about North Macedonia's path to the EU, BTA reported.
„The first condition is that the Macedonian community in Bulgaria receives the rights guaranteed in international law and international conventions on human rights. I do not want the constitution (of Bulgaria) to be changed. I want this (the first condition – ed. note). And secondly, until we receive guarantees for our Macedonian identity, for my Macedonian language, that there will be no more bilateral vetoes and that (...) this country, which has shown and proven many times that it wants to be part of the European family, (which has) made sacrifices like no other, and this people, and these citizens, who made sacrifices like no other citizens of Europe, will no longer be humiliated and for subjective reasons have new obstructions from anyone. For constitutional changes we must have 80 votes (in parliament), I sincerely advise your colleagues in this hall not to support constitutional changes without having at least these two guarantees,” stated Mickoski.
In response to a question from the MP from the “European Front“ Skender Rexhepi Mickoski made the stipulation that while he is prime minister, no changes will be made to the constitution if these two conditions are not accepted, and stated that he is ready “to go all the way, even if it is his last“ .
“When I am not prime minister, maybe you will still be an MP, there will be someone else, you will ask him and he will give you an answer. For the changes to the constitution to be adopted, 80 of your colleagues are needed. I strongly advise the remaining 119 in this hall not to support your position on the constitutional changes without managing to obtain at least these two guarantees (...) I think you should support this position, you should support the position for the Macedonians from Razlog, from Gorna Dzhumaya, from Sandanski, from Pirin. You should support it, because in the 1956 census, they were 200 thousand and they were the majority in the Pirin region of Macedonia. They were two-thirds of the total population and magically in the 1965 census the number became 9 thousand. From two hundred thousand to 9 thousand and a former Bulgarian president describes this as an engineering feat that he is particularly proud of. They are being deprived of their rights to cultural autonomy, to communicate in their native Macedonian language, to speak in their native Macedonian language, to dance to their Macedonian songs, to respect their Macedonian customs. Now they only want the opportunity for OMO “Ilinden Pirin“ to be an organization that will represent the rights of the Macedonian community in Bulgaria. Is this too much?“, said Mickoski from the parliament rostrum.
When addressing his question to Mickoski, Rexhepi proposed that all 120 deputies in the country's parliament adopt a “resolution for the protection of the Macedonian language” and “to begin the changes in the constitution, because the future of the citizens depends on the decision of the parliament and the government”.
“We must all together adopt a resolution in which we have a unified position, a statesmanlike position, that without these minimum conditions in the future we will not make concessions on any topic”, said Mickoski.
Rexhepi replied that the constitutional changes in the country will still happen, but the question is how much time North Macedonia will lose, because “the situation in the country is gloomy, because there is no perspective, no light in the tunnel and there is complete apathy”.
According to Mickoski, however, with the adoption of the negotiating framework in 2022, the then government of North Macedonia caused serious damage to European integration.
As a condition for starting negotiations with the EU, North Macedonia must include in the basic law the Bulgarian community in the country.