Exclusive interview with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in Dnevnik

Prime Minister Gruevski speaks in the first part of his interview with Dnevnik about the name issue with Greece, the attitude of the international community to both countries, the possibility for BDI to walk out of the Government, the demographic catastrophe in Macedonia, the economic situation and investments.
“The pressure on us in the name issue with Greece now is in another form and manifests itself via various negative reports on Macedonia, which is at the same time an attempt to seek out an alibi why Macedonia is not entering the EU and NATO. More specifically, it is an alibi for the incapacity and lack of will and interest of the great powers to undo the injustice that Greece does. They need someone to blame for it,” Prime Minister Gruevski explains the heightened incidence of foreign reports in which the Republic of Macedonia is presented negatively.

Q: Mr. Gruevski, it is crystal clear that Macedonia will not be set a date for opening negotiations. You have recently been to Vienna and met Philip Reeker in Skopje earlier. Also, you have the information of the meetings of our ambassadors, the minister of foreign affairs and the president. Recently, in your address at the birthday of your party you appealed for assuming a joint position and determining a new state strategy, to which SDSM replied with a question of why you failed to integrate the country into the EU and NATO. Do you have an answer to that?
A: I don’t understand how SDSM can ask such a question considering not just Macedonia but the whole world knows why Macedonia did not join NATO and was not set a date for opening EU accession talks. The only reason is that we refused to change the Macedonians’ identity and the name of our country and to make that change to the liking of Greece. At the same time, Greece refuses to negotiate and expects everything to be as it wants. This is the answer although they know it well. We went through the block in Bucharest in 2008 together. Branko Crvenkovski, their father by DNA, and I were there and we both made almost identical statements. The fact that afterward SDSM changed its course shunning responsibility is another story. However, in the following period we met all required criteria, carried out all reforms and made the progress expected of us except for one thing: we did not meet Greece’s demand. Every year we were issued positive reports from the EU and recommendations from the European Commission to the European Council for setting Macedonia a date for launching membership negotiations with the EU. The situation is identical in regard to NATO. The only thing missing for membership is the Greek consent. I really don’t want this to sound as some sort of an alibi. I have never run from responsibility yet it is a fact and I cannot think of another answer except to say the truth. I know that Zoran Zaev, the new chairman of SDSM, has a different view on this issue. I remember that a few years ago he publicly stated that we should bend our back and I have nothing against anyone expressing their opinion. Yet that statement is not helping us at all in finding a solution acceptable not only to Greece but also to the majority of Macedonians and citizens of the Republic of Macedonia. Sometimes I put myself in the shoes of our southern neighbor and wonder what is there left for them to do when the leader of the opposition on the other side openly says that if he were a prime minister he would bend his back. That would certainly make them avoid a fast resolution and rather wait for future elections when he would win and bend his back. Why should they hurry? And frankly, based on what I see and hear, they are in no hurry at all.