1 “There are no instant results,” says Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski after returning from Washington, where he attended the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the USA.
I can’t help but wonder if things might have been different had SDSM not fixated solely on the question
whether our Prime Minister truly had an invitation to the inauguration and whether he posed for photos
with important people or with a bunch of nobodies in hotel halls and cocktail receptions, or if, even
before departing for Washington, Mickoski’s team hadn’t tried to lie to us that he was the only one from
the Balkans invited to the inauguration of the American president.
It’d be great if they stopped underestimating our intelligence and stopped trying to impress us with
nonsense. Both this and that party. What matters is to see whether any results will come out of that
trip, and if so, what those result will be, or whether this whole episode will simply become another PR
stunt.
A new era is upon us. With Trump, it’s not just the USA that’s changing. The world is changing. Whether
that change turns out to be for better or worse, there’s absolutely no harm in the fact that our Prime
Minister, on the very first day of the American administration, decided to try to use his contacts with
people who hold some sort of a role in that society. To raise his hand – hello, I’m here too.
What are we? A speck on the world political stage. Macedonia is not Italy. And Hristijan Mickoski isn’t
Giorgia Meloni, so instead of being in the Capitol Rotunda, he was sitting in a sports hall box.
However, while the public is preoccupied with whether our Prime Minister had a diplomatic offensive in
the US or was just searching for a good selfie angle, let’s not forget that the only burning problem still is
how to include Bulgarians in our Constitution and ensure that the EU won’t continue to bully us and
hold us back. And if the Constitution isn’t amended, then how do we change the negotiating framework,
and should we even bother negotiating with the EU at all.
But since our Prime Minister claims that “the Macedonian question will never be closed until the main
and strategic goals are realised, and that is to become a full-fledged member of the European Union,”
perhaps he should dial down the populism when it comes to Greece. Given all the troubles we face at
home and all the obstacles the EU has put in our path, we really don’t need to reopen the only issue
we’ve successfully resolved with our neighbours.
2 During the break in the debate over whether Mickoski had a VIP ticket or a regular one in Washington, news surfaced that in Kumanovo, 174 fewer students will show up in primary and secondary schools at the start of the second semester. In Tetovo, 74 students have signed out. We still don’t know the numbers for other towns.
People aren’t just leaving for money anymore. They’re looking for peace. And predictability.
At least 100 families from these two towns didn’t even wait for the end of the school year. They were in such a rush to escape this beauty. This wonderful legal state.
3 The government has determined the need to buy a new state plane. Fine. They’ve determined the need, now let them start the procedure. Just let them stop trying to fool us with endless explanations, like how President Boris Trajkovski died in a plane crash and other catastrophic details.
The government’s job is to ensure absolute transparency in the procedure. And to establish a practice where this transparency applies even after the purchase, to prevent any potential abuses. And so that, when we ask who flew on that plane and why, they can tell us without making up a million reasons why they’re not telling us. After all, of course, they’ll be flying on a plane bought with our money, for our benefit.
That’s the only thing we care about and the only thing the Government should provide. There’s no need to scare us with necrophilic fears.
4 President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, in her speech at the traditional New Year’s reception for foreign ambassadors, said that “since the beginning of the Russian military operation, we have sided with Ukraine, not only because of the unified European policy, but also on principle.”
Putin refers to the Russian aggression against Ukraine as a “special military operation.”
Macedonia is the fifth largest donor country to Ukraine, based on the percentage of GDP among all donor countries. We provide assistance because Ukraine is a victim of aggression. If we have sided with the victim, then why does our supreme commander refer to the Russian aggression in the same way Putin does?
Was it a slip of the tongue by the president? Or is she trying to tell us something new?
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
