Deputy PM for European Affairs Nikola Dimitrov survived a vote of no confidence in Parliament brought by the opposition over his handling of foreign policy issues. After debating for almost 12 hours on Wednesday, Parliament voted 53-55 in favor of the no-confidence motion just before midnight.
The discussion in Parliament was dominated by the ruling majority and the opposition trading barbs on a slew of issues.
It was the third motion of no confidence against Dimitrov in the past 3,5 years. He survived the first two while serving as foreign minister.
“If I’d taken the first two no-confidence motions very seriously, I’d approach the third one with indignation. What am I being accused of? For not delivering negotiations at any cost? At the cost of Macedonian language? Is it perhaps what you have wanted in order to accuse me of treason, of betraying the national interests. If you want that from me, let me tell you now – it will never happen,” Dimitrov told the MPs.
Opposition MPs said they filed the no-confidence motion because the public was manipulated over the country being approved a date to start negotiations with the EU, and the series of foreign policy failures among other things.
The ruling majority, led by SDSM, called the motion of no confidence ‘baseless’, accusing VMRO-DPMNE of trying to devalue the government’s foreign policy achievements.
“Dimitrov is the architect of the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria, which is flawed. It contains no protection clauses in case Bulgaria violates its part of the agreement,” VMRO-DPMNE MP Aleksandar Nikolovski said.
He accused Deputy PM Dimitrov and PM Zaev of being responsible for Macedonia not having opened negotiations to join the EU despite the current government making it a top priority. “Not knowing when or if it will negotiate is the biggest fiasco this government could have experienced,” Nikolovski said.
Addressing the MPs, Dimitrov said that the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria had been unanimously welcomed by the international community, calling it a great inspiration for the whole region and a big step for the country toward the EU.
“The government got an unconditional recommendation for EU accession negotiations and our neighbor, Bulgaria, was the one that violated Article 2 of the Treaty, where it obligated to help us on our path to EU integration,” he said.
Dimitrov noted that it was his job to negotiate the agreements to be in the best possible interest of the country. “It’s not my responsibility if a country decides against honoring an agreement,” he said.
Addressing opposition criticism, Dimitrov said if the opposition truly wanted to tackle ‘the unfortunate developments arising from the neighbor’s non-European behavior’, it should have risen above party lines and join the government in its EU integration efforts in a bid to meet the second strategic goal after the country had joined NATO last year.
