MACSHANE’S WATCH

by | 23 July, 2021

Greece sought our name, Bulgaria is seeking our language and identity, so, once Albania joins the EU what will be left for them to seek?

1 In December 2007, when asked when Macedonia would receive a date to start the negotiations, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told jokes about the composer Jean Sibelius. When his wife asked him at six o’clock in the morning when he’d come home, Sibelius replied: “My dear, how should I know? I am a composer, not a fortune-teller.”

Three years earlier, in 2004, the UK’s Minister for Europe Denis MacShane took his watch off in front of the reporters and said: “Every country has a very simple choice. You either push your watch forward or you move it back.”

Olli Rehn is now a bank clerk in Finland. And Denis MacShane spent six months in prison in 2012 when they caught him submitting false invoices for travel expenses and went on to write a book about the prison. His country is no longer in the EU.

The children in Macedonia who were born in the years when various European emissaries told their parents that one day we’d be in the EU are already teenagers and are making plans how to leave the country. Many European politicians of that time are retired, some are no longer alive. All Macedonia is left with are the same old promises. And the same old phrases about European values. Empty talk.

2 The frustration of Macedonian citizens doesn’t stem from not being part of the EU, but because the Eurocrats are lying to us. And the disappointment doesn’t stem from the fact that we aren’t part of the EU, but because with each new obstacle from the EU, the clock in our country goes back more and more.

You know what? Change the name; you’re very important to us for the security of the region. You know what? We’ll do it. You know what? We admitted you to NATO so that Russia wouldn’t lay hold of you, so now we don’t really have to admit you to the EU. Truth be told, we made a promise to you, but Bulgaria is inside and you are outside.

Is it a European value to trample on European values ​​because you find it convenient? What use are values you swear by, when you don’t respect them? The right to self-determination isn’t just a European value. It’s a civilizational value. However, that right doesn’t apply to the EU when it comes to Macedonia. Just as international law didn’t apply when the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Greece had breached the Interim Accord.

In the case of the Bulgarian veto, it turned out that the greatest European value is not keeping your word.

3 And now, after 16 years of candidate status and 12 positive recommendations for the start of negotiations, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said: “When the EU decides to deliver a date for the accession talks, let us know.” The EU must be “deeply concerned”. Because “the user is out of network coverage”.

The country is entering a period similar to the one after Greece’s veto over NATO in April 2008.  Like the one when Gruevski began behaving like a typical bad student, who had previously shown great interest in classes. Why would I do homework when my teacher hates me? She’ll fail me anyway and I’ll repeat the school year. And we saw how the retention turned out.

I can understand why Zaev feels resigned as a person, but not as a politician and leader. What I don’t understand is why he wants to make it easier for the European Union by saying that if they decide to start the accession talks only with Albania, he wishes them success and happiness. It’s like he’s trying to say, keep on doing what you’ve been doing, we’ll be waiting for you to call us. I’d expect a leader to point out to the EU that if Albania is the only one to advance in the European integration process, there’ll be another certain destabilization of the whole region. What will our Albanians do as the largest minority if only Albania joins the EU and Macedonia doesn’t?

What’s Zaev’s goal? To make it easier for the European Union to fool us or to take us into the EU?

Now, Zaev is hugging with Edi Rama, but who knows what kind of Rama will come in Albania and what kind of Zaev will be the Prime Minister of Macedonia when Albania becomes an EU member. He used to hug Boyko Borisov like that as well. At the moment, our neighbors are great. But when they join the EU, they’ll surely think of something to ask for. Sorry Zoran, brother, but we’re inside and you’re outside. Does Zaev know what the next veto from Albania will be over? Greece sought our name, Bulgaria is seeking our language and identity, so, once Albania joins the EU what will be left for them to seek? Not bilingualism. We’ll have to give up half the country.

4 Both the government and the opposition have started the campaign for the local elections in October ahead of time. Now, we’ll listen to them speak about European values every single day.

They’ll speak about the great importance of the quality of life of the inhabitants in the municipalities, when actually the demands of the investors are more important to them. They’ll speak about the welfare of the citizens, when actually they’ll be thinking about how to provide a state salary to their party members. They’ll promise to be a service to the citizens, when actually they’ll continue to employ incompetent and lazy party bootlickers. They’ll promise to fight corruption, when actually access to public money will be provided only to their close ones.

Don’t promise European values. Because, the only European value that you practice is to promise and then not deliver.

5 Where are all those who complained that the trials of SPO cases would never end? There you go; the trial for the arrest of Ljube Boskoski is over. Yet, people are still not pleased. Sasho Mijalkov and the “alphas” have been cleared of charges because the judge didn’t understand who had done what to be convicted of torture.

Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva will spend seven years in prison, because she was in cahoots with the showman Boki 13 and allowed Orce Kamchev to set them up. There’ll be a retrial for six cases of her Special Prosecutor’s Office. Sitel and Kanal 5 were competing with each other by trying to air the most disgusting video of the arrest of Ljube Boskovski so Mijalkov would praise them. And Zaev’s Government promises a Fund for Media from the marijuana money so he could request articles like Mijalkov used to.

What a defeat of the fight for justice. The circle is closed. McShane’s watch moved back.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski