1 We, the Macedonian citizens who’ve decided to stay here, don’t seem to realise that tomorrow Albania, too, will be harassing us at border crossings, just as we’re currently being harassed at EU borders, do we? It’s not that they hate us or want to harass us, but that they’ll have to. Just as the Montenegrins will. Just as we’re currently being hassled when entering Croatia, the EU country friendliest to us. Not because they want to, but because they have to. And yet, back in 2001, Macedonia signed the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU before any of them.
In fact, Macedonia was the first country from the Western Balkans to sign that Agreement. But that doesn’t matter now. What matters now is that we won’t receive an EU roadmap, whatever that means, the way Montenegro and Albania will. They’re already negotiating, while we’re not. We’ve now been lumped together with Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo, countries that often can’t stand the sight of one another. Serbia, which doesn’t even know whether it wants to join the EU in the first place, Bosnia and Herzegovina, constantly fearing it’s on the brink of collapse, and Kosovo, which isn’t even a member of the United Nations and isn’t recognised by five EU member states.
We’ve been sidelined. It’s like primary school, when misbehaving children were made to stand in the corner as punishment. And it’s not as if we’ve been that naughty.
How many more years do we have to lose standing in the corner?
2 Following the visit of European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski stated: “I cannot say I am satisfied with the messages sent by the EC President. She made it clear that the constitutional amendment remains on the table, a measure accepted by the previous government.”
How long will Mickoski keep making excuses, claiming that some other government did it and that he’s dissatisfied?
I’m not satisfied either. I’ve written a hundred times that Bulgarians don’t deserve a place in our Constitution as a constituent people because Bulgaria has always fought, and still fights, precisely against Macedonian statehood. I’ve written a hundred times that the European Union was unfair when it allowed a debate during the accession process about whether a Macedonian people speaking the Macedonian language actually exists. And I’ve written a hundred times that the demands of the Bulgarian state, not just the fascist one from the Second World War, but also the current democratic one that’s an EU member, are downright hostile to the Macedonian state and, especially, to the Macedonian people.
Mickoski will have to excuse me, but he’s the Prime Minister. He’s faced with a difficult task, and he was elected to resolve it. If we’ve declared EU accession our strategic goal, then let’s get on with it—at least start the negotiations with the EU. We’re not getting anywhere if he keeps repeating that what the EU demands of us is unfair. We all know it isn’t fair, we’re not stupid. I believe many within the EU know it isn’t fair either. But we’re the ones who want to join. They’re already in. How many more years can we afford to spend feeling disappointed and offended?
The children born in 2005, the year Macedonia became a candidate for EU membership, are about to graduate from university. Some here, others across Europe, at universities in Slovenia, Germany, France, Greece, Spain, Italy…
The children born when the Prespa Agreement was signed in 2018 are already in second grade, some of them probably at schools in Germany or Switzerland, where their parents moved during the mid-year school holidays.
Who knows where life has taken those born in 1993, the year Macedonia became a member of the United Nations. We were disappointed back then, too, because we were admitted under a provisional name and without a flag, yet, for the first time in history, the Macedonian people secured an equal seat on the world stage with a state of their own.
All of that took place under different governments.
It was a different government that brought us into NATO, too.
When Mickoski ran for prime minister, he was aware of the decisions made by previous governments. He’s an engineer, but surely he understands how international law works.
After all, every country has had a government that signed something at some point.
3 If you recall, back home Mickoski played the hero by refusing to recognise the Prespa Agreement. However, Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis quickly brought him back down to earth right at the start of his term. The 2024 NATO Summit in Washington marked Mickoski’s first encounter with reality as Prime Minister rather than as an opposition leader, Mitsotakis, who had also been against the Prespa Agreement while in opposition, sent him a message: “Agreements must be respected. We want North Macedonia to take steps towards European accession. That, however, means respecting international law and the agreements the country has clearly signed.”
Mitsotakis, too, didn’t like the Prespa Agreement concluded by the previous Greek government. He, too, made a fuss about it before the elections. But that’s the reality.
The Macedonian government’s foreign policy is based on a denial of reality.
Did Mickoski tell von der Leyen personally that he was dissatisfied? Even if he did, she can’t help him.
Looking at the bigger picture, he doesn’t care about unblocking the process so we can finally move forward towards the EU, despite all the obstacles that might still stand in our way, not all of them imposed by Bulgaria. It’s more important for him to boast back home that we’ll wait for decades to join the EU if necessary, but that he won’t budge even a millimetre as long as he’s in power. It’s a great line. People love hearing that sort of talk outside the local corner shop or at komitadji gatherings.
He can certainly stay in power for years using that kind of populist rhetoric. But what good does it do us if he wastes another ten years of our lives? Just like we lost time with that predecessor of his who announced one morning: “I’m in Budapest now.”
4 We have a serious problem.
On the one hand, we have a prime minister who proves to us daily, through his personal example and behaviour, that he can’t achieve national reconciliation at home, let alone engage in serious dialogue abroad with Bulgaria and the EU, however painful that might be.
On the other hand, we have the leader of SDSM, Venko Filipche, who instead of uniting the opposition, calming the feuding factions and attracting everyone who disagrees with VMRO-DPMNE’s policies, has ended up quarrelling with his own people. He’s said such nasty things about them that even VMRO-DPMNE’s most vile press releases contain nothing of the sort.
It’s a pity we don’t have a leader willing to listen, discuss, negotiate…and, above all, willing to engage in dialogue without exploiting Bulgaria’s veto to maintain the status quo at home.
To top it all off, what’s even more frustrating about the EU process is that we’ve ended up in the company of other Western Balkan countries that are at odds with one another. And this is happening precisely when the EU, after 13 years, has decided to expand and is coming up with creative solutions to make that process easier.
How many lives do we have left?
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
