US Diplomat Escobar Expects Citizens to Understand Opportunity

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, Gabriel Escobar, who’s also the US Special Envoy for the Western Balkans, said in an interview with 360 Stepeni, published on Saturday, that citizens should determine whether there was a need for new elections.

He expects citizens to understand the opportunity in front of them and to take advantage of that. “I do hope that they send a signal to the leaders of North Macedonia that they want that and they want that quickly and they want that now so that we can begin building that structure so that North Macedonia is fully and formally part of every Euro-Atlantic structure because that’s where we want you,” he stated.

VMRO-DPMNE’s stand, however, remains unchanged. According to opposition leader Hristijan Mickoski, the meeting with Escobar at which he presented the positions and needs for quick elections was constructive. “If it was only about a change of the Constitution, we would have already been part of the EU. How many times we changed it? This is just a condition for a start,” he stated.