They sang “We have but one name”, but never mentioned a name
Concluding the part dedicated to the government’s economic failures, promises that the government will be held accountable for all the bad deeds it has done to Macedonia, and the announcements that the opposition party will defeat them all one by one, Hristijan Mickoski asked his supporters and supporters to sing “We have but one name that we carry in our souls… “. On a cold evening in front of the government building, he also sang along with the crowd that protested against Zoran Zaev’s policies. But, somewhat unexpectedly, it was the first and last time in the one-hour long march that the name of the state was mentioned.
Although VMRO-DPMNE campaigned against the Prespa agreement for months, with which, as they argued, Macedonia signed a capitulation and deleted the past, the history, the language and identity – however, as if they had waved a white flag, although the Parliament had yet to pass the second and the third stage of ratification of the agreement, the two-thirds majority will at least twice experience temptation.
There is a new reality since October 19th
“We are still against, but in reality, it is a done deal since the government, with the support of some of our former members, has managed to win over up to eight MPs from the coalition we are leading,” VMRO-DPMNE stressed.
The party’s expectations are that now the eight independent MPs will continue to support the agreement with Greece and will vote “in favour” in the next stages in Parliament, despite the fact that Saso Mijalkov, who was thrown out of the so-called “White Palace” for ganging up with the rebels, is in in detention. They is no going back for them, according to the party, and given that they have not yet legally regulated the amnesty for the events of April 27th, it is illogical to think that it would be possible to change their minds and vote “against” the agreement.
On the contrary, officials in VMRO-DPMNE admit that they cannot be absolutely certain that there will not be other “bird migration” when the second voting in the legislature comes to an end, and they conclude that wasting time and resources on a process that they cannot influence is futile.
“It would have been different if those MPs remained consistent in the party’s position and respected the will of the majority of the citizens who boycotted the referendum. Now we must admit that since October 19th we have a new reality,” the main opposition party said.
However, the awareness of the new reality coincides with the participation of the party leadership of the Congress of the European People’s Party in Helsinki and the intriguing post of EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who after the meeting with Mickoski expressed gratitude that the opposition party VMRO-DPMNE will not hinder the implementation of the agreement.
He promised Hahn not to hinder the implementation
Former Minister of Health, Nikola Todorov, who was excluded from the party for the same reason as Mijalkov, claims that at the same summit in the Finnish capital, where he was a guest at the EPP’s invitation, he found out what Mickoski’s constructiveness meant. Allegedly, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE promised that his deputies will refrain from “filibustering”, that is, submitting thousands of amendments in order to stall the name process, which needs to be finalized as soon as possible.
“In the election, whenever it may be, we will defeat every one of the authorities and their new supporters,” Mickoski cried out at the protest, alluding to Todorov and the dismissed vice president Mitko Jancev, who had coffee with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Strumica last Saturday night.
Prominent members of VMRO-DPMNE recently told Nezavisen Vesnik/Independent Daily newspaper that the rhetoric that Mickoski used towards international partners would come to an end in order to come closer to the structures in Brussels and Washington.
As for the domestic plans, the opposition party has announced protest marches before the government every Wednesday, as well as weekend rallies in other cities. They will be peaceful demonstrations, that is, “Gandhi-like”, as the leader of VMRO-DPMNE called them, and will last until he sees Zaev’s back. He announced that when he came to power, he would build 500 kilometers of highways, and the air would be cleaner by 30 percent.
Ramka: The fence is still in place, didn’t he say he would remove it?
VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski made remarks to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev that he had not yet removed the fence in front of the government, even though it had been promised even before he came to power.
“Our revolt will be expressed differently, it will not be the way they did it, because we are the ones who built this. Our revolt is democratic, civic, and we will show them how one should love one’s homeland with peaceful protests. We will not paint, we will not break. I see the fence – it’s still standing, two years ago they said they would remove it. What is it, are you afraid of the people?” Asked the leader of the opposition for one of the symbols of the rule of his predecessor, Nikola Gruevski.
Goran Adamovski