VMRO-DPMNE argues Filipche lacks the authority to resolve the dispute with Bulgaria, as the people have not assigned him such responsibility. This reaction follows Filipche’s address at the “Starting the S&D Program ‘Willy Brandt’ for EU Enlargement” conference in Brussels.

VMRO-DPMNE asserts that the public has already expressed its disapproval of the capitulations made by Venko and Zaev in the dispute with Bulgaria during the last elections. The party believes that Filipche’s attempt to blame the government for a self-imposed veto and renunciation of European integration warrants a fact-based response grounded in true values and statesmanship responsibility.

VMRO-DPMNE finds it absurd for SDSM, a party it accuses of capitulating to every condition, erasing the Macedonian language from institutional formulations, and allowing the insertion of bilateral issues into the European process, to speak about European strategy and dignity.

The party further claims that the current stagnation in the process is due to the harmful and unnegotiated Agreement of 2022, which it says was signed by SDS without internal consensus and contrary to public opinion. They state that the constitutional amendments are blocked not by VMRO-DPMNE, but by the public’s distrust in a process led by SDS without transparency, answers, and with secret additions.

VMRO-DPMNE clarifies that it does not refuse constitutional amendments outright, but insists they be part of a broader agreement reached through a democratic process, with guarantees for identity and protection of state positions, which it claims SDSM violated.

Filipche had stated in Brussels that North Macedonia is in a bizarre situation of a self-imposed veto because the Government refuses to implement the necessary constitutional amendments. He urged PES and the S&D group in the European Parliament to take an active role in the EU enlargement process.