SKOPJE – Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov will not be meeting with the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, and the three EU MPs, Eduard Kukan, Ivo Vajgl and Knut Fleckenstein, since he is still visiting Hungary, Meta reports.
The president’s cabinet announced that Ivanov will return very late this evening in Macedonia and since Friday he has informed Ambassador Samuel Žbogar that he doesn’t plan to meet with the four representatives since his stance regarding assigning the mandate remains unchanged. Since the president will not be having a meeting with the EU Commissioner Hahn, president Ivanov will give his term to representatives of the civil initiative „For a United Macedonia“ who asked for a meeting with Hahn. It is good if the EU Commissioner gets acquainted better about the arguments and the reasons because of which Macedonian citizens are protesting for more than 20 days“ said the president’s cabinet.
“President Ivanov has clearly and unequivocally announced that he will not assign a mandate without a previous public condemnation and rejection of the Tirana Platform.
Since the president will not be meeting with Hahn, Ivanov said that he will give his meeting slot to the representatives of the civil initiative “For a United Macedonia” who demanded to have a meeting with Hahn. It is good that the EU Commissioner will get to be acquainted with the arguments and the reasons because of which Macedonian citizens are protesting for more than 20 days” said Ivanov’s cabinet.
On their journey to Skopje, one of Commissioner Hahn’s associates has twitted a photograph while in the airplane and he wrote: ”On the journey to Skopje, Johannes Hahn, Eduard Kukan, Knut Fleckenstein and Ivo Vajgl, with a message to respect the democracy and the parliamentary majority. Don’t heat up inter-ethnic tensions.”
On our way to Skopje. @JHahnEU @EduardKukan @knufleckenstein @ivajgl msg: respect democracy & prlmnt majority, dont fuel int/ethnic tension pic.twitter.com/IALYaFyVMZ
— KyriacosCharalambous (@kyriacosch) 21. март 2017.