In response to SDSM leader Venko Filipce’s call for national consensus on the EU path following his meeting with Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos in Skopje on Tuesday, the government has said the opposition party has no legitimacy to call for that. According to PM Hristijan Mickoski, though his cabinet has for months asked for consensus, the opposition has been harming the EU path of the country.
“While we’re trying to restore that internationally, they have stopped at nothing to backstab us”, he stressed, adding that SDSM had done so because it believed it would get those who didn’t want good things to happen for the country to like the opposition party.
He also noted that the opposition was missing out on its chance to consolidate and join the ranks of defenders of “Macedonian interests”, and, thus, at least a little, restore part of the lost credibility.
Regarding the Commissioner’s comments on Tuesday that the Macedonian identity didn’t depend on any political decisions, but rather on feelings, traditions, monasteries, baked beans, pogaca bread, and so on, Mickoski again said that identity was more than gastronomy.
SDSM and DUI, too, reacted to her comments. The latter stated that sources close to the government were trying to turn the comments into a hate campaign, while the latter pointed out that both the language and the identity had been confirmed in all documents already signed with the EU.
“We don’t consider that the Commissioner had a bad intention, but we appeal for carefulness with regards to statements when there is talking about sensitive matters and topics that, unfortunately, are being unnecessarily opened even though they are clearly closed”, Filipce’s party stressed.