1 Macedonia’s European future, as well as Albania’s, is blocked because of 3,504 people. That’s how many Macedonian citizens declared themselves Bulgarian on the census. 1,519 people stated Bulgarian is their mother tongue. Since Bulgarian President Rumen Radev insists that the veto on Macedonia’s EU accession talks shouldn’t be lifted until Bulgarians are included in the Macedonian Constitution, that means that the stability of the Western Balkans, Russia’s influence, the declining confidence in the EU, the divisions within the EU itself and the fate of more than 4.5 million citizens of Macedonia and Albania depend on the fact whether those 3,504 people will be included in the Macedonian Constitution.
Why do they bother making excuses for their hostile attitude towards Macedonia? They should finally just say that it’s not Bulgaria’s national interest for Macedonia to join the EU. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sofia, commenting on the census figures, even stated that “the fact that 7.2 percent of the citizens of the neighbouring country are not actively counted is the subject of a serious analysis.” And Radev says that Bulgarians in Macedonia were afraid to be enumerated, referring to the over 100 thousand Bulgarian passports given to Macedonian citizens.
The Macedonians who obtained a Bulgarian passport aren’t afraid. They’re ashamed. Because they had to say they were Bulgarians in order to get an EU passport. They were trying to get an EU passport so they’d have a better life. Just like the Bulgarians from Bulgaria did in the first year their country became an EU member state and rushed to find a job in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Italy… For a better life. Since Bulgaria joined the EU, the population has decreased by one million. Macedonians would go as far as to register as Klingons if that passport opened the door to a better life. However, they registered as Bulgarians, because the Bulgarian system of issuing an EU passport was the easiest and the most corrupt. Give Karakachanov money and he’ll find an address under a utility pole in Kyustendil, Blagoevgrad or Petrich and once it’s registered as your residential address – you’re free to go and seek a job in the EU.
2 Meanwhile, various EU representatives are coming to Macedonia to convince us that despite Bulgaria’s non-European policies, we shouldn’t lose faith in the EU. Austrian Federal Minister for the EU Karoline Edtstadler stated that it’s understandable that Macedonian citizens are disappointed and depressed because their European integration is blocked with new negotiations and bilateral demands. She said “Keep believing in the EU, we will do our best not to be divided, especially in a situation where Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine is raging”.
Yes, right, now it will even turn out that it’s our fault that Russia is expanding its influence and our citizens are losing faith in the EU. While we’re thinking of the EU, they’re saying – solve your bilateral dispute with Bulgaria, although they don’t recognize you as Macedonians.
The Austrian minister has good intentions. And Austria’s policy towards Macedonia and the attitude towards EU enlargement have been friendly since our independence in 1991. But, how do they expect us to have faith in the EU, when the EU lied to us? They told us – change your name and you’ll start the negotiations. When someone lies to you once – shame on them. When they lie to you a second time – shame on them. But when they lie to you for the third time – shame on you for trusting them.
And now they go on to encourage us and scare us by saying– believe in the EU because otherwise Russia will divide us. As if we didn’t already have it rough waiting to be granted a European future by having to decide who tsar Samuil belongs to, we now have to worry about the European future of the Europeans, in case Russia divides them. You’ll have to wait. We’re now in the 11th century. We’ll say our opinion on Russia, Ukraine and the Russian influence on the divisions in the EU when the historical commission starts discussing the 21st century. If we ever get to that point. Since, there’s a lot we have to discuss with the Bulgarians about the 20th century.
3 I don’t understand all those who say: “I don’t accept the census results”. How does the result of a statistical operation depend on whether one accepts it or not? They came, they enumerated you, you answered what they asked you, they registered it and – that’s it. That is – they came, they didn’t find you or you didn’t open your door, you didn’t answer the questions they were supposed to ask you, they wrote down that you weren’t home – and that’s it. 132,260 such citizens were enumerated. Is there really anything to not accept there?
All those who live abroad were asked to enumerate themselves online. The ones who didn’t want to be enumerated, didn’t do it. I don’t understand why we who live here would worry about how someone living abroad feels. We can’t handle our own feelings, and we’ll worry about theirs? We need the census, so the state we pay taxes to would have data which will be used to plan how many kindergartens we need, whether we need roads with two or three lanes, where to plan a clinic, a school, a hydropower plant, how big our state reserves should be… Truth be told, the only thing we don’t need the census for is urban planning, since urban plans are adopted without considering how many people live somewhere. As for the planning of the living conditions of our people abroad, both the enumerated and the unenumerated ones, the countries where they pay taxes take care of that.
After all, it’s nice that over 130,000 citizens living in Macedonia are above the situation where some parties insist on national issues from the 19th century. They don’t care if they’re called Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Roma, Bosniaks, Serbs, Croats, Egyptians, Bulgarians, Martians, Klingons…Those 130,000 are simply people.
And the people who said: “I won’t open my door”, and now don’t accept the census results, should wait at the door next time.
4 It’s become so normal for officials to have privileges that even Minister of Justice Nikola Tupanchevski didn’t think twice before saying that the Anti-Corruption Commission should stop dealing with nonsense when they asked him to report on the expenses of his trip when he went to watch football in Palermo. And the President of the Basic Court in Kavadarci, Lazar Nanev, rebuked the journalists for not knowing how to rejoice and enjoy life, and that’s why they were preoccupied with the trip he took with the Minister of Justice and the Senior Public Prosecutor, Fatime Fetai. They take us for fools, as if we don’t know how enjoy if someone else pays for it. The judge’s motto resembles a Serbian song: “Take everything life gives you, today you’re a flower, tomorrow a withered rose…”
It’s in vain the Government has adopted a Code of Ethics for the officials when the Minister of Justice doesn’t see what’s wrong in accepting to be a guest of the Football Federation of Macedonia at the match in Palermo, especially when in the company of a president of a court and a senior public prosecutor. The minister isn’t the only one who doesn’t understand, it’s the same case with a lot of his colleagues and low-ranking officials, and all the way to citizens who don’t hold political office. They say: “Take it easy, billions of money has been stolen and billions of trials are unfinished, and you’re hung up on a football match”.
Yes. That’s right. Take it easy, you’re hung up on an illegal parking, and these guys robbed the whole country. Take it easy, you’re hung up on a 50 euro bribe received by a civil servant. Take it easy, you fine me for smoking, although the whole state administration smoke in their offices? What, am I the only one throwing waste on the street? Aren’t whole towns buried in garbage?
That’s why it’s normal when the Minister of Justice of such a country says that the Anti-Corruption Commission is dealing with nonsense. What is not normal though is when Kovachevski’s Government, which has a Deputy Prime Minister in charge of good governance, expect us all to trust them when they tell us pompous words about anti-corruption, ethics and so on…Toward the EU.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
