Kristian Vigenin: Prime Minister Mickoski is fighting for the past instead of for the future of North Macedonia

“It is baffling that the prime minister of the Republic of North Macedonia Hristijan Mickoski fights with such ferocity for the past rather than for the future of his country. With his actions he harms North Macedonia and in practice he himself is vetoing its accession to the European Union. Until Bulgarians are included in the Constitution of the country, North Macedonia will stay where it is. The commitments made to the EU simply have to be met.” This was stated by the head of the delegation of Bulgarian socialists in the European Parliament Kristian Vigenin on NTV from Brussels, where yesterday the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the EP failed to vote on the amendments to the text on North Macedonian identity and language. It was blocked by several nationalist MEPs from the party of Viktor Orban.

Vigenin emphasised that this report, even in its current version, does not speak of a centuries-old identity of the language and culture of North Macedonia, and that Mickoski himself is inventing quite a few formulations that do not appear in the document.

On suggestions in some media that he did not vote in the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, Vigenin explained that he is not a member of it, and that the amendments in question to the report on the progress of North Macedonia were not put to a vote, because under the procedure, if at least five MEPs object, an oral amendment is not voted on. The same proposals will, however, be made in writing for the vote on the report in the plenary, and there they cannot be stopped. He hopes the question will not bring division among the Bulgarian representatives in the EP, because the strength of Bulgaria in getting the report postponed lay in the unity of all political forces and the united decision of the Bulgarian parliament.

On the resignation submitted by Kiril Petkov as co-leader of We Continue the Change, the MEP, who is also a member of the BSP Executive Bureau, said that the attacks are an opportunity for the party to look ahead and to the future, rather than continuing to sink into explanations and excuses about who did what. “Clearly, when there are such doubts, someone has to take responsibility. I wish We Continue the Change success in finding the way forward as an opposition. When there is a strong, capable opposition, those in government govern better,” Kristian Vigenin commented.