The president of VMRO, Christian Mickoski, made a new challenge today. who, when asked about the action of the new president of North Macedonia, Gordana Silianovska, to call her country “Macedonia”, insisted that according to their own interpretation of the Prespa Agreement, there is no violation and if Greece believes otherwise resort to International Court.

In fact, the president of VMRO described the attitude of the new president as “dignified” and added that he expected congratulations from the southern neighbor.

In particular, Mitsotsky stated that “I do not expect the relations between the two countries to be based on policies of showing power, we expect to have good and excellent neighborly relations. I appreciate that VMRO-DPMNE and the New Democracy government have their own position on the Prespa deal, none of us like this deal.”

Mickoski added that “unlike Greece, the Prespa Agreement it is part of the institutions, the Constitution and the laws and in the communication within the institutions and between the institutions of the country the constitutional name will be used”, but it is his right to call his country in public and in the media.

“I expect that President Silianovska will use the name Macedonia and the word Macedonian, because according to our interpretation of the Prespa Agreement, there is no violation and I use this opportunity to tell our friends from Greece to stop the threats, the obstacles, and instead let’s go back let’s look to the future, these are documents that are part of the law. If they think we broke the deal, then there is the International Court of Justice, so there we will cross our arguments. I would not like this to happen, I call on them to have friendly relations, to help each other. And if anyone expects VMRO to repeat the mistakes of the past, rest assured that we will not do that,” Mickoski stressed.

Mickoski added that the protocol that will refer to the economic cooperation of the two countries is expected to be ratified.

In particular, he stated that “we want economic cooperation and I am taking this opportunity to invite Greek companies to invest in North Macedonia, we want to welcome them” just as the companies of his country, he added, should invest in Greece, as “this is how they should partners work together”

Continuing in the same mood, Mickotski said that “unfortunately the first impression from our southern neighbor instead of congratulations on the triumph of both VMRO and Silianovska we saw a public show of force, even though the Prespa Agreement is implemented in our country, while there they have not done the three main things. We want good neighborly relations and I expect to meet the Greek Prime Minister soon and to discuss cooperation in tourism, economy, education, etc.”

Gerapetritis for North Macedonia: Concessions on fundamentals cannot be tolerated

“There is no room for any concession. Greece will strictly monitor the situation in North Macedonia,” said Mr Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritisasked in the joint statements with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Jan Lipavský in Prague, if after the upcoming European elections North Macedonia will be able to start negotiations for the European Union – on the occasion of what was delivered at the inauguration of the new President of the country.

“We know that one of the conditions for the development of the pre-accession process is for the government of North Macedonia to fully comply with the Prespa Agreement, which precisely indicates the country’s constitutional name. In any case, it is the will of the Greek government to continue to implement the Agreement. However, we must be fully aware of the fact that there cannot be any concession when it comes to the actual implementation of international agreements, which by definition, from the Constitution, take precedence over common laws”, said the minister.

“We really ask the government and the President of North Macedonia to faithfully implement the Prespa Agreement. We are very happy to discuss further. But, as I mentioned, concessions to the fundamentals cannot be tolerated”, underlined Mr. Gerapetritis.