Mickoski for Nezavisen Vesnik: The referendum will fail

The leader of the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE Hristijan Mickoski, in an interview with Nezavisen Vesnik/Independent newspaper, believes that the referendum, which is to be held on Sunday, will fail. He is convinced that the number of those who would abstain and those who would vote “against” the agreement with Greece will be much higher than those who would vote “for”.

– Over 900 thousand citizens need to vote in the upcoming referendum, and most of them need to give their votes “for” so that the referendum can be considered successful. If that happens, and I don’t believe it will, then I will accept this as the will of the people. And, I do not intend to go against it. You can not say that you are a democrat, and not respect the will of the people, but at the same time, I expect, if the referendum fails, the government to respect it as well. I heard Nikola Dimitrov the other day say that regardless of the referendum, the constitutional amendments will be sent to the Assembly. Wait a minute, it doesn’t work that way. Why send amendments, when the people have not shared their opinion on an agreement that means self-renaming? What is this equating the people with zero? If so, then we should let Dimitrov and Zaev should rule for life, let there be no elections. But it doesn’t work that way. On the other hand, is this an announcement that the government already knows that the agreement will not get a green light from the citizens, and is now trying to skip it? Then why did they spend millions to convince citizens of something so harmful? An unsuccessful referendum would mean that the agreement has failed. This is not what I say, it’s what the law says. Even the spinning of thesis that Dimitrov tries to push is not valid here, like the one where he says that the only ones that will decide are the ones that are going to vote. This is not a country only to those who go to the polls, this is a country that belongs to all citizens, said Mickoski.