"We had 10 reforms that we were supposed to complete, with a grace period until the end of June. Here we have a certain extension until mid-July, among them is the Electoral Code," said the Prime Minister of Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, answering a journalist's question about whether the opposition is an obstacle to fulfilling the last task of the European directives, which is the adoption of the Electoral Code.
"We appreciate that, as it is currently, the way the diaspora, that is, the expatriates, vote does not correspond to the true capacity. That is, we have the inability for them to come out in large enough numbers to exercise their right. Especially expatriates in Australia, Canada and other overseas countries, they have to fly 10 hours back and forth to exercise their right."
And we tried to make a proposal that was accepted along with all the other amendments that contain the recommendations of the OSCE and ODIHR. Everything was finished, the law was signed. The Left parliamentary group did not want to sign it, they said we agree with everything, thank you for giving us more money, there is no problem, we will spend it ourselves. What they are doing now has nothing to do with the truth, this is now theater for a small number of voters who still trust them. Imagine if these people were given the opportunity to manage an institution, what would happen. And like this, we do not sign with you, you know we are followers of Robospere, we cannot with you. Well, it cannot be like this, if you want to participate, you will also have to have responsibility. And so we said, it cannot be.
And then the second opposition party, SDSM, came forward, and they submitted thousands of amendments, everyone found some kind of remark. We made a clear proposal – sit down, agree in the opposition on what you want, how you want, make a proposal that will include the diaspora vote and we will support it without reservation. We will support everything you want without reservation. Just let us finish this by July 15th, so that the ten steps can be successfully completed, so that we can move on to the next phase. Here we are waiting, several days have passed, we still do not have a coordinated position of the opposition. When I say, a coordinated position of the opposition, I mean SDSM, Levica, the Democratic Union for Integration and some of the MPs who I do not know how they function within the Parliament now… the MPs of Zijadin Sela, the MPs of Arben Taravari. That is the opposition.
"On the part of the ruling group of MPs in Parliament, we have a coordinated position that says say what you want, put it on paper and we will accept it, as long as the diaspora vote is contained. One election, one election. More money, more money. Here we will reduce from our side, even though we are the largest political party, let it be for them, we have no problem. Everything they think they will do, we will accept. But unfortunately, to this day we still have no response from the opposition," said Mickoski.
