New Democracy MEP Maria Spiraki faced directly with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski on the views on the lack of democracy and democratic values of the Macedonian government. Spiraki and Gruevski met in a meeting of the parliamentary group of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, on which Macedonian PM was confronted with questions from several MEPs about the situation in Macedonia. Spiraki asked him to explain whether, after what happened in Macedonia, he thinks that only the name is a problem for our stalemate in relation to the EU.
Gruevski, ignoring Spiraki’s theory for undemocratic behavior of his government, focused only on the possibility of resolving the name dispute. Prime Minister changes the subject from the stalemate to negotiations on the name of the Greek side, accusing Athens that it has put the resolution of the name on “standby” due to preoccupation with financial problems. Gruevski noted that immediately after being elected Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras called him to propose speeding up the resolution of the name, adding that the priorities of Greece at the moment are related to the financial crisis and that there would be a meeting and talk when the time comes.
– We would like to reach an agreement on the name issue as quickly as possible. I called the new prime minister when he was elected and, apart from congratulating him on his victory, I proposed for us to accelerate finding a solution and to come to a compromise. He said that at that moment he is focused on the financial problems, and that we will meet when the time comes. He didn’t call me since then, and the official mediator, Matthew Nimetz, in this period has not reminded our countries nor has called. Apparently he is waiting the period when Greece would be defocused from the financial crisis it is facing – stated Gruevski at the parliamentary meeting in Strasbourg.
He stressed that Macedonia would like to have normal and friendly relations with Greece, which, however, he didn’t mention by its name, just as “our southern neighbor.”
