Despotovski: The French proposal was seen as a chance to bring the process to completion

Jovan Despotovski, a member of the SDSM and former director of TIDZ, believes that the claim that the previous government had a subservient approach toward Bulgaria and the European integration process does not hold.

Speaking on the program “Samo Vistina,” he said that Macedonia had deserved the opening of negotiations with the European Union, but according to him this should not have been conditioned solely on constitutional changes.

“There are many countries in Central and Eastern Europe that in the 1990s lagged behind in many respects. We deserved this, not because of the constitutional changes, but because we were ahead and had more will, commitment and capacity.

At the time when Macedonia was supposed to officially receive the answers from the very beginning, the obstacle was France, with the justification of the Union’s lack of institutional readiness, which in the meantime still has not been prepared.

Accepting the French proposal was an opportunity to take things to the end, but this turned out not to work because of the public reaction, the lack of preparation and the revolt. In the meantime, elections were held, the political circumstances changed, and now we have a government that supports a somewhat different approach,” Despotovski said.