TIRANA, August 20 – A political crisis in the Republic of North Macedonia after debates on constitutional changes has ended inconclusively and a vote on them was postponed indefinitely. MPs in Skopje debated last Friday on whether to change their basic law, including whether Bulgarians should be included in the constitution.
The Albanian parties have given their support to the constitutional changes, but they have requested that the process also include changing the definition of the Albanian language in the Constitution, which is recognized as a language spoken by more than 20 percent of the population in North Macedonia.
In an interview for Sitel TV, Pendarovski said that the opposition’s concept is to come to power and only then think about who they can obtain parliamentary majority with for the vote on the constitutional changes. By voting against the adoption of Parliament’s Friday agenda, the opposition showed that the European concept in the country has failed, Pendarovski noted.
VMRO-DPMNE wants new elections, but so far they do not have the broad support of the Albanian parties, who are staunch supporters of EU accession.
The ruling majority is still trying to gather 80 deputies needed to make the changes to the Constitution.
The proposals for changes in the constitution provide for the inclusion of the Bulgarian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Slovenian, Egyptian and Jewish people in the basic law, which would guarantee their rights and active participation in the political life of the country.
The opposition remained adamant. Immediately after the debates, he asked for a quick vote in the Assembly to make it clear that the cabinet does not have a majority and that the chosen path to the EU – the French proposal – leads to a dead end.
At a news conference on Saturday, VMRO-DMPNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said that there is no price for which his party would agree to the constitutional changes under Bulgarian dictate, and not a single second more should be spent on the matter. He described as treacherous and losing Prime Minister Kovachevski’s claim that the constitutional changes are a proposal of North Macedonia made under no dictate. Were it a Macedonian proposal, it would have been legitimized by citizens in elections or a referendum, Mickoski said. /argumentum.al
