site.btaVMRO-DPMNE Leader Mickoski Reacts to Bulgarian PM Glavchev’s Comment

Hristijan Mickoski, leader of the VMRO-DPMNE party in North Macedonia, argued that another annex to the Treaty of Friendship, Good-neighborliness and Cooperation between Bulgaria and North Macedonia is needed. Interviewed by the Kanal 5 television channel, he insisted that amendments to his country's constitution and the inclusion of Bulgarians in it should take place after North Macedonia's accession to the EU.

Commenting on the words of Bulgarian caretaker PM Dimitar Glavchev that Bulgaria cannot make more concessions on questions regarding North Macedonia, Mickoski said in this case his party will go about its domestic tasks in North Macedonia and wait for someone sensible (in Bulgaria) to come with whom they can talk.

Mickoski said he does not see any concessions made by Bulgaria. "I see no such thing. This is the first time that a bilateral treaty has been part of a negotiating framework. Such a thing does not exist in any other case. Good-neighbourly relations are different matter, and there are international criteria for what good-neighbourly relations mean. I am talking about a bilateral treaty, show me another example of that. There is not one. I am ready to go and argue our positions anywhere in the world," he stressed.

The nationalist VMRO-DPMNE scored decisive victory in the parliamentary and presidential elections in North Macedonia on Wednesday, defeating the pro-European Social Democratic Union of Macedonia which has ruled the country for the last seven years. VMRO-DPMNE will have 59 MPs, which gives it a high degree of certainty that it can form a government that needs 61 MPs to be approved. With its 19 seats the European Front coalition led by the Democratic Union for Integration is the second political force. The Social Democratic Union of Macedonia-led coalition received 18 seats, while the coalition of Albanian parties Worth It will have 13 MPs. The Left party, which had two MPs in the previous parliament, will now have 6 MPs. For Our Macedonia (ZNAM), which is standing for elections for the first time, enters the new parliament with 5 MPs.

With 300,000 more votes than the country's incumbent president Stevo Pendarovski, VMRO-DPMNE’s Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova will be North Macedonia's first female president, the State Election Commission results show.