Bulgaria is facing the seventh parliamentary elections and has been in a political crisis for three years due to the inability to elect a stable government. In the pre-election, Macedonia is even more part of the rhetoric of the political contenders and it seems as if that is the only point on which they agree.
The guest in this edition of Labyrinth is the journalist Tonya Dimitrova from the National Service, with whom we talked not only about the elections, but also about the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights that Bulgaria does not want to implement, the constitutional amendments that they require from us, as well as about the problems that Zaharieva has in her political career towards European institutions.
Watch the full episode.
The largest military alliance marked the 75th anniversary of its existence with a Summit whose focus is the war on European soil. The leaders of the member states gathered in the American capital to confirm the commitment to help Ukraine. Some of them used the margins of the Summit for meetings related to bilateral issues. A meeting between the Macedonian and Greek Prime Ministers did not take place, and journalists behind the scenes say that there was no interest on the part of the major powers to discuss such issues within the framework of the Summit. From the press room in Washington, we include Romanian military reporter and senior political correspondent Cristina Cileacu. In addition to the fact that the Alliance confirmed the commitments to help Ukraine, Cileacu also informed us about the other agreed strategic determinations, such as declaring China a country enabling Russian aggression. We asked Chileaku tofollow up the meetings of the Macedonian Prime Minister.
From the French capital, on the other hand, we are talking with an advisor in the French Assembly on topics related to the great upheaval that occurred during the elections. Councilor Matthias Vasquez from the ranks of Macron's party talks about the mood of the voters and the actions of the parties that led to this turn. At the moment, the main challenge facing France is the election of a prime minister, which the winning coalition seems to be having difficulty electing. Vasquez is a good expert on the Macedonian and Balkan situations, given the fact that he was previously on missions in these countries, so we used this call to ask him for his opinion on the French proposal that was imposed after the Bulgarian veto announcements.
Watch the entire show.
Analysis of Macedonian foreign policy strategies
The guest in this edition of Labyrinth is Major General Pavle Arsoski, who in the last elections was also elected as a deputy in the Macedonian Assembly from the ranks of the new political party ZNAM. We discussed the future steps of the Macedonian Government regarding the respect of international agreements, as well as the relations between the coalition partners. The General says that everything is already clear regarding the observance of international agreements, namely that the agreements will be respected where they should, and the Government will make great efforts to improve good neighborly relations.
With General Arsoski, we also discussed the regional open issues, as well as the active military hotspots and the possibility of ending them. General Arsoski reiterated the position that the attacked side has the right to defend itself, and he sees the end of the two active wars in the very near future. For the new Secretary General of NATO, Rutte believes that he is an excellent choice for the Alliance.
Watch the full interview.
The European elections ended without a change in the parliamentary majority, but with an increase in the number of far-right MPs. The composition of the European Parliament may not undergo major changes, but changes are taking place in the domestic politics of member states with great political influence. What this will mean for the Union and its individual policies in the future, we analyze with Andreja Stojkovski from the Prespa Institute. The enlargement policy, the green agenda, as well as the Common Foreign and Security Policy are some of the topics we discussed. We also analyzed our strained relations with our neighbors and the expectations from the future Macedonian Government when it comes to bilateral agreements with the neighbors.