PM-Designate Mickoski Says He hasn’t Changed Stand on Name Use Issue

On Wednesday, PM-designate Hristijan Mickoski said he hadn’t changed his stand on the issue concerning the use of the country’s name.

“As you’ve been able to hear, I’ve used ‘Macedonia’ the whole time and will continue to do so. However, we, as the government, cannot ask for citizens to respect the laws and Constitution as we calculate and have double standards,” he stated.

Mickoski said his announced use of the constitutional name at the swearing-in ceremony would be a result of the change to the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure, which regulated the manner in which the Government and its members were sworn in.

However, four years ago, during the campaign for the 2020 parliamentary election, the VMRO-DPMNE leader said that if he became the PM, nobody could make him use the constitutional name, even though, even then, he would state it was a reality. Nonetheless, a year prior, in a TV debate, he had said he would never use the adjective.