1 Let’s enjoy the long holiday weekend. I mean, the fight over the name can totally wait, right? Macedonian literacy is being celebrated in Greece. Could there be a more fitting place to honour the brothers Cyril and Methodius, who started their Slavic enlightenment mission precisely in Thessaloniki? The mission of the holy brothers in Thessaloniki must go on, especially when it’s in a festive form on a beach in Halkidiki.
Traditionally, Macedonians love spending their holidays in Greece. Sure, they have to wait several hours in line at the Bogorodica border crossing in both directions. But hey, what’s a few hours when they’ve already been waiting thirty years to join the EU and travel without getting stuck at the borders?
We’ve been whining about the EU’s double standards because it had blocked us for years over Greece, and now it’s blocking us over Bulgaria, but let’s be real, we ourselves live by double standards. You put on a brave face against Greece while at home, getting fired up by populism, and then, just like that – at the first chance for a long weekend, you rush off to spend your savings. Swimming in Greece or skiing in Bulgaria.
Did they flash their Bulgarian passports, or did they actually manage to cross with their North Macedonia passports?
I can imagine how many heated political debates are unfolding this holiday weekend among Macedonians enjoying lunch at Greek taverns. They’ll outshout each other, they’ll get feisty, they’ll keep coming up with excuses for why they had to go to Greece again (it’s really close, it’s for the kids, it’s healthy to take holidays by the sea…), they’ll analyse why VMRO won, why SDSM lost, they’ll gloat about DUI…
And once the debate is over, in the end, the Greek will show up again, and without a second thought– they’ll pay their bill. No questions asked. They’ll even leave him a tip.
2 It’s truly remarkable how masterfully President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Hristijan Mickoski are playing the game. They did a wonderful job passing the ball to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis so he could score with a back-heel goal. VMRO-DPMNE laid it on a platter for him during the campaign for the European elections – he hasn’t stopped talking about “North Macedonia,” “the northern neighbour” and “Skopje.” He capitalised on this slip-up. So, if until now the Greeks kept silent or pretended not to hear us, from now on, every chance they get, they’ll note down every omission of “North.”
I have no doubt that Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Hristijan Mickoski had a good plan. She was going to omit saying “North” in her oath, he was going to say that the institutions include the word “North,” but he personally chooses not to say “North,” back home everyone would applaud them, and just like that, we’ve outsmarted Greece and voilà – the whole world would call us only Macedonia. An ingenious strategy. VMRO-DPMNE advocates for that sort of patriotism.
Those who act tough at home and wave the flag with the Vergina sun, use every long weekend to make a sacrifice for the homeland in the queues to step into the lion’s den with a passport of the Republic of North Macedonia and when a Greek police officer asks them: Where are you going?, they promptly answer in Greek: Thessaloniki.
Macedonia proud again.
3 Regardless, on the 28th of May, we’ll have a new Assembly. I have no doubt that the first task for the 58 MPs of VMRO-DPMNE will be to acquire diplomatic passports. Those who already have Bulgarian passports won’t need to show them when entering an EU country. They’ll be able to cross the border with Greece with their diplomatic passports.
After President and Commander-in-Chief Siljanovska-Davkova brought the name issue back onto the international scene, despite its resolution with the Prespa Agreement and the admission to NATO, she started coming up with witty solutions. She has repeatedly used the phrase “ASNOM Macedonia,” a term that probably VMRO members from “Macedonia Eternal” don’t like, but trying to avoid mentioning the constitutional name of our country, her verbal gymnastics is eventually reduced to “our country.”
Which country? Whether North or not, at least Macedonia would ring in their ears.
4 Can you believe it? Seven years after resolving the name issue at the United Nations, we’re still wasting our time talking about it like it’s the 90s all over again, when we were fighting to join the United Nations. Once we did join as FYROM in 1993, Greece kept us under embargo for another year and a half until the singing of the Interim Agreement in 1995.
Let’s get back to reality. And in reality, the operating theatres of the “Mother Teresa” Clinical Centre have been closed for the entire week. Allegedly, there was a really unpleasant smell. The State Sanitary and Health Inspectorate, Minister of Health Ilir Demiri and the directors of the entire surgical department have had several meetings. They acknowledge the fact something stinks, but they’ve been unable to find out what the thing that stinks is, who the competent authority is to investigate why something stinks, or who needs to get rid of the stench.
As a result, there won’t be operations for an entire week in the largest hospital in the state capital. The operating theatres will remain closed until the problem is solved, but no one knows who should solve the problem.
Just as no one knows who the competent authority is for removing the illegal amusement park in the municipality of Karposh, which the company “Disneyland Requisites” from the municipality of Chair, Skopje, set up near the “Boris Trajkovski” arena, across from the “8 September” hospital. The mayor of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, has called on the competent authority to remove the amusement park, because she’s not the competent authority, but actually, no one knows who the competent authority is because the amusement props, carousels and roller coasters are placed on private property. No one’s the competent authority in terms of whether the park is safe, whether the requisites have been properly maintained, whether there’s a traffic management plan, whether there are enough parking lots, whether there’s a fire safety plan, whether there’s an emergency evacuation plan, whether receipts are issued, whether the tickets also include insurance… My house, my rules.
And who’s going to fix all this mess? For years, the authorities have failed to shut down a single bar harassing thousands of citizens by blasting loud music in the middle of the capital, let alone an amusement park. Perhaps, only a lawyer from the American company “Disney” would be able to set things right in Macedonia, especially if in this case he refers to the “issue about the name.”
Karposh is hosting Chair’s Disneyland.
5 Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, addressing Mickoski and VMRO-DPMNE, which is an associate member of European People’s Party (EPP) political group, which also includes the Greek “New Democracy, stated”: Our colleagues in North Macedonia must accept the fact that the election period is over.
However, both Mickoski and VMRO-DPME got carried away by the election buzz and forgot that the term “Republic of Macedonia” was removed from their party’s new Statute, adopted during a session of the Central Committee on the 21st of July, 2020. They faced the reality even back then. At least, that’s what’s stated in the Statute published on the official website of VMRO-DPMNE.
Let’s get back to reality. It stinks. It stinks a lot. And not just literally, but also metaphorically.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
