site.btaUPDATED Opposition Party Chair Mickoski Declares Readiness to Support Constitutional Changes in N Macedonia Following Croatia's Example

North Macedonia's opposition party VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said he was ready "as early as tomorrow" to support the procedure for changing the country's constitution if the wording of these changes is along the lines of the constitution of Croatia and North Macedonia to be "a state of one people and its minorities". Mickoski's words, during his visit to Stip, were in response to a journalist's question on how he would comment on the government's statements that the constitutional changes could be made following the example of Croatia's constitution. 

"I do not know if they have read it, I do not know if they have seen it (the constitution of Croatia), or if they are just speaking from memory, but VMRO-DPMNE immediately accepts such a constitutional amendment," Mickoski said.

Croatia's constitution lists 22 minorities, while the wording "minorities" is not present in the preamble of the constitution of North Macedonia. Changes to the preamble of North Macedonia's constitution should be made, according to the adopted negotiation framework, with the inclusion of Bulgarians and, according to the Macedonian government, Croats and Montenegrins, as well as those ethnic groups that have requested it.