1 Let’s stop fooling ourselves. It’s not about Tsar Samuil, nor is it about Goce Delchev. And it’s even less about the Bulgarians not having rights in Macedonia. Unlike the Macedonians who do have rights in Bulgaria. Those are just excuses so the Bulgarian offensive to destabilize Macedonia could continue.
The statements that “there is no country in the European Union that wants to see North Macedonia in the EU as much as Bulgaria does” are absurd. So, Bulgarians are vetoing against their own will!? It’s like someone standing on the roof peeing on you and telling you that it’s raining.
The offensive against Macedonia is further intensified by the statements from official Sofia that Albania should be separated in the process and start the EU accession talks. As if we don’t know what destabilizing effect that would have on Macedonia. And they certainly do know.
These are moves of a classic enemy country. Bulgaria doesn’t hide that it has territorial claims to Macedonia and everything it has failed to accomplish for centuries, it wants to achieve now. And to do that as an EU member state.
It’s all the same to us whether their president is an army general or a Harvard student. Why would we hope that someone who graduated from Harvard would be less nationalistic than Todor Zhivkov’s former bodyguard, when everyone’s referring to the nationalist declaration of the Bulgarian Parliament from 2019 that Macedonian people and Macedonian language don’t exist. And they’re doing that although they’ve signed the Good Neghbourly Relations Agreement.
And if the latest poll that 70 percent of Bulgarians justify the veto on Macedonia is really valid, then we and our neighbors are in a cold war. And it’s unlikely that Macedonia will emerge unscathed from that war.
2 It’s somehow understandable why Bulgaria is happy about the destabilization of Macedonia. But I can’t understand why VMRO-DPMNE and Levica are rejoicing at the third Bulgarian veto. Well done Bulgaria, it’s great that you are destabilizing my country.
3 The EU Delegation in Skopje has launched a new campaign “EU with You,” dedicated to the European Green Deal. At the promotion of the campaign they said that the agreement “exhibits a Museum of the Future, as a reminder of what can be lost in our lifetime due to climate change and environmental degradation.”
They got the theme wrong. Over here, the EU should exhibit a Museum of the Future as a reminder of what can be lost in our lifetime due to the climate created first by the Greek and now by the Bulgarian veto and the degradation of European values. And make that exhibition permanent.
Then they say they’re sorry that despite the “EU with you” there’s growing distrust of the EU, because polls show that more and more people say that we should turn to Russia, because they’re delighted with every statement Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic makes, delighted that Levica is getting stronger, delighted that even after 30 years people still long for Yugoslavia…
The photo from the plane on which Zoran Zaev, Nikola Dimitrov and Bujar Osmani give thumbs-up for getting a date wasn’t taken because those three agreed to lie to us, but because they were lied to. How can one not be disappointed with the European Union? How can one not be angry with someone we believed to be smart, hardworking, honest, and true to their word?
Just imagine! To convince a state to change its name. And then to say to them: Sorry, but such are our regulations. A member state is allowed to tell you that neither your language nor your nation exists.
Instead of saying “Don’t give up,” it’d be more honorable for them to inform us: “Sorry, we tried everything, that’s the best we could do, try to find a solution on your own.” Just as it’s not uncommon in international politics to accept the pragmatic principle of “stability over democracy,” then let the EU formalize the principle of “consensus over civilizational values.” They should stop lecturing us about European values. Because when it comes to the Bulgarian veto, I really don’t know which values the EU is defending with the consensus.
4Let’s go back to the news from the country.
The Minister of Transport and Communications Blagoj Bochvarski said that “the process of establishing a road safety agency is in the final stage”.
Instead of having the construction of the roads in the final stage, in the final stage he’s making yet another institution for hiring party suck-ups at our expense. Of course, it’s not enough to have two public enterprises in charge of road maintenance, plus private companies paid by said public enterprises to do their job. Of course, without another agency with a director, secretary, driver and staff in order to maintain the parliamentary majority, road signs can’t be renewed, the grass along the roadside can’t be cut, the safety barriers on motorways can’t be repaired, white and yellow lines can’t be marked…
Representatives of DOM and LDP said that Zaev, in order to neutralize their dissatisfaction, offered them ministers without portfolio. Zaev will leave. Let him hire them in his company if they are dissatisfied with the new coalition and let him appoint them as directors without portfolio. Let him pay for their secretaries, their drivers, their cars and their perks. And let him make sure they’re in good form until the next negotiations for a parliamentary majority.
The ideas on putting coalition partners on the payroll are creative. If existing institutions are occupied, new ones will be created. It’s a piece of cake to found new agencies, directorates, head offices, administrations, centres… How the heck has it not occurred to them to open a Ministry of Competencies? What will that ministry deal with? No one knows, but everyone will have to get a stamp from that ministry. It will give jurisdiction to all those who are not the competent authority.
5Traffic in the capital was blocked for several hours. Nobody knows why. The new mayor Danela Arsovska accused the Ministry of Internal Affairs of not regulating the traffic. The Ministry of Internal Affairs accused her of being bad at her job, because the City of Skopje is the competent authority for traffic regulation.
The best any government can do is to shift the blame to another if it doesn’t know how to solve the problem. If the local and the central government continue to shift responsibilities and competencies like this, then at least for the next two years, we’ll live in paralysis.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
