Macedonia’s former President and one of the main SDSM ideologists, Stevo Pendarovski, admitted in a TV interview with the national broadcaster MRT that an employee from his office recorded video and audio of conversations at meetings of the state leadership.
According to Pendarovski, such meetings were attended by Zoran Zaev as Prime Minister and other leaders of political parties in power at the time, including DUI leader Ali Ahmeti.
In addition to the then political and state leadership, at such meetings in the presidential office, which, obviously, could easily have been recorded and taken outside, Pendarovski says that ambassadors were also present, including the then United States ambassador Kate Marie Byrnes, and the EU ambassador to Macedonia David Geer, who made suggestions on how to achieve constitutional changes more quickly and easily, thereby acknowledging that foreign ambassadors were deciding the fate of Macedonia, what everyone had known for 7 years about the servile, spineless functioning of the Zaev-led government and the team that included the current guardian of the throne, Filipche.
Asked if a broad coalition was one of the ideas of the Americans at the time, Pendarovski says that it was one of the things he did not want to say publicly, but he still decided to talk about it, because it had already been publicly promoted by former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev himself.
“The idea of a broad coalition was discussed between Zaev and Mickoski, to form a broad coalition, and there are two points in that, so to speak, informal agreement. First, Bulgarians in the Constitution, snap elections next. VMRO wins elections at least a year earlier than the regular term, and we all bear the political burden and after that we push, not only towards the European Union, but without such a burden we push the country to develop much faster. That idea was supported by international diplomacy, including American diplomacy. However, I know that Zaev explained that to the then top of SDSM and in the government,” said Pendarovski, pointing out that given the current situation, such a proposal was rejected by VMRO-DPMNE and its leader Hristijan Mickoski.
The former head of state pointed out that what was leaked to the public and what the media reported, that it was happening at a meeting in SDSM, was said later, and as an idea for a broad coalition, it existed from before.
But what is important and what can be confirmed even now, this indecent proposal was immediately rejected by the then opposition VMRO-DPMNE and party leader Hristijan Mickoski.
First proof of this is, says Pendarovski, that snap elections were never scheduled, that is, regular parliamentary elections were organized in 2020 and 2024 in Macedonia. And secondly, there have been no constitutional amendments to include the Bulgarians to this day.
