1 Extending the winter break. So children would stay home and study online.
The same day when Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski participated in a session on the transformation of education and presented the “national goals and strategies for the advancement of the educational process in North Macedonia”, the mayors from the Polog Region came up with the idea that the winter break should last for two months because the municipalities don’t have money for electricity and heating, and that if they run out of money completely, kids shouldn’t go to school at all. They can just keep warm at home.
They must have explored these ideas before they authorized the mayor of Gostivar, Arban Taravari, to announce them to the public. The school year will start on the 15th of August and it will end in July. What about the matura exams? What about university admissions? Who’s going to reconcile all those things? Which Assembly is going to change laws? The blocked one we have at the moment, which can’t even declare a state of crisis in the middle of a crisis? Which ministry is going to coordinate and implement all of that? This one, which can neither provide textbooks at the beginning of the school year, nor report cards at the end of the school year? Let’s not even get into the fact that for some kids the school might be the only place where they can be warm.
The mayors have come up with a splendid idea. In a crisis, let’s sacrifice children first. By no means should we sacrifice the public administration employees, who didn’t go to work during the covid crisis and showed us we could do well without at least half of them. What were they thinking when they fought to become mayors? That they’d hire only party members? As for managing the budget, the only thing they know is how to make a list of how much money they owe and to whom.
The strategy for the advancement of education our prime minister spoke about in New York isn’t in accordance with the strategies our parties have devised in order to hire party members for state jobs. As if it’s not enough we give them salaries, now we’ll have to keep them warm.
2 The only solution is for everyone from the public administration, from municipalities to ministries, to be fired and to rehire them only in the jobs that are really essential. Firing people and conducting an open competition the same day. Like resetting a computer. Let the hiring committee consist of people who don’t owe anything to any party. Not one of us – let them be foreigners. Let them check their resumes, make them write motivational letters, test them, check if they’ve lied about knowing a foreign language, let them align the process with the tool for equitable ethnic representation…
The reset of the state would be particularly useful when it comes to judges and prosecutors. It won’t affect the length of trials, which last for years anyway.
It might do us well if that process of resetting takes a while. No one’s in a hurry in Macedonia anyway. And it’s not like the EU is in a hurry to deal with us as well.
3 I’ve just received an invitation to participate in a debate with Bulgarian intellectuals. The Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU presidency, had an idea for “reasonable people” from both countries to meet and discuss the European future of the Western Balkans.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia were the most vocal EU members and the only ones who came out with a document during the first Bulgarian veto in December 2020; a document in which they stated that they wouldn’t allow “the European Union be the judge on our common history, how we identify ourselves or what language we speak”. And, truth be told, until the end, until the French proposal, they stood by their opinion that historical issues mustn’t be part of the conditions for the EU accession talks, while our Government didn’t allow that. That’s why I don’t doubt the sincere intentions of the Czech presidency with this idea, to enable reasonable people from Macedonia and Bulgaria to meet.
But there’s no need to debate anything with reasonable people. We already understand each other with reasonable people even without a debate. Since we share the same values. And, reasonable people are not the ones who made the problem. And it’s debatable whether those reasonable people are powerful enough to change the official Bulgarian policy that’s doing us wrong. Until now, that voice has been so weak that it has almost no influence on the official Bulgarian policy. Each party is singing the same tune when it comes to Macedonia.
Here, let’s say I were a Czech who was organizing the debate with the best of intentions. How would I set up a debate on the topic “there is no Czech language, and the Czech people is a communist invention”? Ok, meet, debate, perhaps you’ll realize you are Bulgarians. Where will we debate? Everyone knows, in the “Vancho Mihajlov” Club in Bitola.
The idea the EU has come up with to facilitate the dialogue is actually an attempt to civilize the uncivilized action of Bulgaria, which is contrary to the values held by the EU, and the Czech Republic as part of the EU.
We need to change our Constitution if we want to start the EU accession talks. Including Montenegrins and Croats in the Preamble won’t be a problem, since they respect the Macedonian people and the Macedonian language and Macedonian associations are not prohibited in their countries. It will take some convincing for the citizens of Macedonia to accept the idea of Bulgarians to be included in the Constitutions, since they don’t recognize the Macedonian language. I don’t think a debate will convince them.
4 I wonder, if Bulgaria could make a unilateral statement that the Macedonian language doesn’t exist and that statement is recorded as a document in the EU’s negotiating framework, why wouldn’t the other 26 EU member states make 26 unilateral statements that they do recognize the Macedonian language? Mind you, not just for them to say – we recognize you, what Bulgaria is doing to you isn’t fair – but for those statements to remain as an official document and a guarantee that every Macedonian government would refer to in the future. Since, Macedonia is the one expected to change the Constitution.
Is it absurd? Is it stupid? Is it naïve? Are we asking for too much? If the EU didn’t find it absurd and stupid that Bulgaria is claiming the Macedonian language doesn’t exist, why would it be absurd and stupid for the other 26 countries to state they do recognize the Macedonian language? It won’t be difficult. They’ll refer to the principle of self-determination as a fundamental value of the EU and – job done, without consensus.
With or without a referendum, the Constitution will change. With blackmail, with a show of force, with bribing MPs, with choosing the line of least resistance, a two-thirds majority will somehow be reached. Still, citizens should be convinced that changing the Constitution is in their interest. And they’ll be convinced of that only if they’re sure they’re not losing the essence of their existence. If the EU as a whole can’t promise that, since we’ve seen that it doesn’t keep its word when it makes promises, then at least let our friends from the EU promise us that, each country individually.
The stick alone won’t work. We’ll need a carrot if we are to change our Constitution.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
