Kovachevski and Mickoski eye to eye on the constitutional amendments

Meeting of Kovacevski and Mickoski/Photo: RSM Government

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski and the leader of VMRO-DPMNE Hristijan Mickoski will hold a face-to-face meeting today at the Club of Deputies, where they will discuss the future of the country in the context of European integration conditional on constitutional amendments and the inclusion of Bulgarians in the Preamble. Kovachevski calls on the opposition party to support constitutional amendments, while VMRO-DPMNE, in the days before the official talks, repeated the position that there will be no constitutional amendments under Bulgarian dictation.

According to the government's announcement from Monday, the Kovacevski-Mickoski meeting will discuss, first of all, the decisions that should be made in the Parliament in order to continue the European integration of the country, as well as the approach of the state, institutions and all political actors in the direction of building and maintaining good neighborly relations with all our neighbors.

VMRO-DPMNE, on the other hand, also announced on Monday that the party's position is that there will be no constitutional amendments, and this Assembly has no legitimacy for such a step.

- We expect Kovacevski to get out of the restraints and hostages of the DUI and accept to discuss the period after the fact that the constitutional amendments will not have the necessary majority, VMRO-DPMNE pointed out.

As he announced, in the meantime Mickoski met with the parliamentary group and the coalition, which then came out with a statement reaffirming the position that they do not support constitutional changes under these conditions. Photographs with signatures of all 44 MPs from the opposition VMRO-DPMNE and the coalition were also published.
Last night, Mickoski made an appeal for national unity and unification from the podium in Prilep, as he said, "about the most important thing, which is how to survive as a country and how to start winning by realizing the strategic interests important to all citizens." Mickoski said that there is no such thing as what the government says or constitutional changes or isolation, but there must only be preservation of identity and a fair chance to enter the European Union.

The Vice Prime Minister for European integration, Bojan Maricic, emphasized yesterday that he expects that at the meeting between Kovacevski and Mickoski, all questions related to the constitutional amendments will be raised, the text itself and the process of how to implement them as quickly and simply as possible in order to continue the negotiations and remove the the eventual blockage.

- I think that only dialogue is the best solution and before the procedure in the Assembly begins, it is logical that the leaders of the largest political parties sit down and talk. The government will be constructive and will always be constructive, says Maricic.

He pointed out that what is important is that the opposition realizes its responsibility in making these decisions.

- They missed that chance for NATO, for the Prespa Agreement, they shouldn't, here is an opportunity for them not to miss it this time, with the fact that this time the text, the content of the amendments is far, far away, let's say it is of less weight and causes less problems, compared to what was before, Maricic said.

The Vice Prime Minister for European Affairs, Maricic, is determined that if the constitutional amendments are not made, the chance to enter the EU will definitely be missed.

MP Mile Lefkov repeated at a press conference that what is important is that there will be no constitutional amendments under dictation and we should think about what happens after the collapse of the constitutional amendments.

The proposal-initiative for constitutional amendments is in the government procedure and it is not known when it will pass the session. After that happens, the initiative will be sent to the Parliament, which starts the procedure for amending the Constitution. Within 30 days, the proposal should be put to the session. The President of the Assembly, Talat Xhaferi, recently stated that those 30 days for the review of the initiative by the deputies can be used for political talks.

At a session held ten days ago, the working group adopted the proposal-initiative on the need to amend the Constitution with guidelines for amendments and additions.

The changes are in the Preamble section by adding several nations. In the Preamble, after "... the Bosniak people", the words "Bulgarian people, Croatian people, Montenegrin people, Slovenian people, Jewish people, Egyptian people" are added, the president of the working group, Margarita Tsatsa Nikolovska, said after the meeting. The second amendment, as she added, is in the section on the diaspora and in Amendment 34, which is replaced by Article 49 and Amendment 2. In this Amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia, which replaces Article 49 and Amendment 2, after "... the Bosnian people" the words "Bulgarian people, Croatian, Montenegrin people, Slovenian people, Jewish people, Egyptian people" are also added.

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