As Macedonia’s main opposition VMRO DPMNE party continues to send conflicting messages about its stance on the September 30 referendum on the agreement with Greece, some accuse the party of duplicitously appeasing the international factors who demand that it participate on the plebiscite, while behind the scenes it pushes for silent boycott.
Hours after VMRO DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickovski on Wednesday said that, if the referendum succeeded, his party would respect the result and support the constitutional changes to adopt the new agreed name for the country, his MPs on Facebook in a seemingly orchestrated move came out with an opposing stand.
“We will not support a change to the [country’s] constitutional name, but – if the referendum is successful and if the majority votes in support of the [“name”] agreement – as a political party we will respect the decision of the people,” Mickovski said on Wednesday.
This contrasted with what some VMRO DPMNE MPs had to say on Facebook, right after his statement, however.
At least 25 of VMRO DPMNE’s 42 MPs pledged in similarly worded and timed messages on Facebook to oppose the constitutional changes in parliament, whatever the outcome of the referendum.
“I swear to God, in my faith and in my Macedonian fatherland … that I will NEVER vote for Constitutional change… If not, let me be killed by one of my Macedonian brothers with the revolver or the dagger!”, a dramatic message posted by VMRO DPMNE MP Johan Tarculovski said.
Among those who expressed a similar position were former parliament speaker Trajko Veljanovski and former provisional prime minister Emil Dimitriev, both now MPs.
Motive is to deflect international pressure:
“It may sound illogical but it completely makes sense”, an unnamed source from the party told Deutsche Welle on Friday.
He argued that the conflicting stands are not random expressions of different views but a smart way to circumvent the pressure on the party coming from international factors.
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