The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Christian Mickoski, in an interview with “Al Jazeera Balkan” claimed again that he abides by the Prespa Agreement and that Greece is the one that is obstructing and not implementing the agreement.

Christian Mickoski, when asked why he does not comply with the Prespa Agreement and does not always use the constitutional name North Macedonia, as the country has only one name for each use (erga omnes), answered:

“I will not agree with your finding that I do not abide by the Prespa Agreement. I am not happy with this Agreement. You know how this Agreement was approved in Parliament, when they grabbed MPs by the ear and led them to Parliament, while earlier they were detained and imprisoned, blackmailed to vote in favor of what happened then. However it is in force, it is a reality. Four years ago I said that this Agreement is a reality, despite the fact that I received strong political attacks from the extreme right and the extreme left in Macedonia. Thus, I respect what is included in this Agreement. The overall official, formal and institutional communication is conducted exclusively with the aggressive determination you mentioned, but the question is why the other side is not abiding by the Prespa Agreement and what has the other side that is part of the Prespa Agreement, I mean the southern neighbor, done us, Greece? Compliance is a two-way street, we must behave this way, we must not have double standards, we must have a principled behavior».

Invited to comment on the fact that the Hellas right after the Prespa Agreement, it was the one that offered support for North Macedonia to become a member of NATO in 2020, and that it is the one that has always offered support to the European integration processes of North Macedonia, Christian Mickoski claimed that Greece does not offer substantial support regarding the European course of his country.

“I think that if the Agreement is analyzed and read correctly, it will be seen that we have done much more than what is our obligation, not only with regard to the Prespa Agreement, but also with regard to the timetable for the actions towards its implementation. I will repeat that the issue is what our southern neighbor has done. You mentioned support on behalf of Greece for the integration of Macedonia in the Euro-Atlantic institutions, but I, apart from support with declarations of intent, have not seen any substantial support, while the citizens of the country have not felt anything like that and I will not refer to the offensive rhetoric , such as Skopianos, Skopje, in the non-sanction of the memorandums by the Parliament in the previous five years. If I’m the problem now, what happened years ago? The citizens in Macedonia and the state are unfortunately victims of the servile behavior of the previous government, which did absolutely nothing towards improving the quality of life of the citizens. In addition, the offensive behavior of a large part of our neighbors towards Macedonia, towards the Macedonian people did not bring anything good for the future of the citizens and what is equally important and to which I want to refer is that I expected something more from him our southern neighbor on how this two-way street can workChristian Mickoski said.

Regarding his country’s relations with Bulgaria, Christian Mickoski reiterated that he will not consent to the amendment of the Constitution of North Macedonia in order to include the Bulgarian minority living in the country, a necessary condition that has been set in Skopje by both Sofia as well as Brussels so that North Macedonia can open the accession funds with the EU.

Christian Mickoski has indicated that he could proceed with such an amendment to his country’s Constitution, provided it comes into effect when North Macedonia joins the EU, something which both Bulgaria and the EU categorically reject. EU.