site.btaNorth Macedonia Opposition Pushes Resolution over UK Migrant Deal Reports

Opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) leader Venko Filipce said on Wednesday that his party would submit a parliamentary resolution to protect state interests, following reports that the Republic of North Macedonia is negotiating to host migrants denied asylum by the United Kingdom.

He was referring to UK media claims that London would pay North Macedonia for each migrant it accepts, an issue that has dominated debate in the country for several days.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Filipce said it was obvious that an agreement on migrants existed and that the VMRO-DPMNE government had to sign it because it was linked to the EUR 6 billion loan the country arranged in London in the spring. He said SDSM believed the budget would show a deficit of EUR 1 billion by the end of the year.

“Can [North] Macedonia, a state that cannot pay wages or maintain basic order at home, cope with such an influx of migrants? Is this economically sustainable? That is why I call on the VMRO-DPMNE MPs to adopt the resolution. In this way we will avoid ‘we thought’, ‘we said’, ‘who is lying’, ‘who is not lying’. And that will be enough. We should not trust empty words; there must be signatures,” Filipce said, referring to the resolution SDSM would draft and submit to parliament in the coming days.

If the resolution is not backed by the ruling VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM will call “all citizens to a large national protest to block the process of accepting migrants”.

Commenting on Hristijan Mickoski’s words that “as long as I am prime minister, there will be no tents for migrants”, Filipce said this meant that either VMRO-DPMNE was planning early elections and a second term, or that “there will be no tents, but there will be social housing” for migrants.

On Tuesday, SDSM also launched an online petition against accepting migrants into the country, which all citizens can sign within 30 days.

During a visit to Aerodrom Municipality, Mickoski replied that he was ready to withdraw from politics if by the spring SDSM leaders “find even one migrant” in North Macedonia; otherwise, they should apologize to him publicly.