"There is no point to make constitutional changes if Bulgaria sets a new condition in 6 months. Viktor Orban offers to mediate the dialogue between North Macedonia and Bulgaria and invites me and the Bulgarian PM to Budapest. Gotse Delchev is a Macedonian hero, let Bulgaria say how many songs there are about him and see how many are in our country".
This is what Macedonian Prime Minister Christian Mitkoski said in the programme "Only an interview" on Channel 5 television.
"I am not participating in this story (EU membership negotiations) just to participate, but to end with success. That is the essence of this whole process. The point is not to change the Constitution until the next hurdle in 6 months. This is not a mandate-from-to, it is a process that is ongoing, it is not a process that will start now and end next week," Mickoski said.
The Prime Minister believes that if there is a will, there is a way so that the whole process is not dragged bilaterally and there are no more obstacles. Mickoski said that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wants to mediate in the EU talks and that he intends to invite the prime ministers of the North Macedonia and Bulgaria to Budapest for talks.
"Let the EU be the arbitrator, the EU president invites us to Budapest so that we can solve all the issues in advance, not in stages, but all of them, and so that there are no more obstacles and no more bilateral binding of this process. Let us start immediately", the Macedonian prime minister stressed.
Mickoski also touched on the common history of the two countries, commenting on the personality of Gotse Delchev.
"For me, Gotse Delchev is a Macedonian activist and a historical figure, a titan of Macedonia, for them he could be something else. Let them say how many songs, names, stories Gotse has, and let us see how many they are in our country. Let us see who Gotse Delchev really was. The wisdom of the people is sacred," the prime minister said.
He stressed that we should be good neighbours, but the demands should be objective, not bilateral, and if we constantly attack each other with medieval arguments, we will not come out of this quagmire.
"We need to resolve them now. If we have objective obstacles, that can make us better. But the subjective problems, the bilateral relations are a problem," Mickoski added. | BGNES
