1 So, Ukraine, which is at war with Russia, and Moldova, which doesn’t have full control over its territory, can start unconditional negotiations with the EU, but Macedonia cannot do that without the inclusion of Bulgarians in the Constitution. I don’t envy Ukrainians and Moldovans. Far from it. We’re ok this way, with stalled negotiations, just let there be no war.
What a nice message the EU sent to the Macedonian public: When we made you change your name, we lied to you that you’d start the negotiations. But we’re not to blame that you trusted us. And we’re even less to blame that you have a government that humbly accepted a condition for the start of the negotiations to be something it wasn’t even sure it could fulfil – another amendment to the Constitution. They even have the audacity to claim: You set the condition yourself. You won’t get a better negotiating framework. Your government signed it.
And they’re right. It turns out it was possible to pass a unanimous decision even when a country threatens a veto. We saw that, this time in Brussels, it was possible for Scholz to say to Orbán, now go and have a coffee outside, so we, the other 26 states, can unanimously vote for the negotiations for Ukraine. Yet, our government didn’t give anyone a chance to ask Radev to step outside and have a coffee. They rushed to mess things up by humiliating themselves. Oh, no, let’s not upset Bulgarians. Oh, no, let’s not offend Macron. As for making everyone mad as hell back home, they couldn’t care less. As for offending everyone as hell back home, they couldn’t care less. All those who, from day one, said that the French proposal simply couldn’t be implemented were labelled as anti-Europeans.
It’s not the EU’s fault that we have a government that prioritised what it thought would be the easiest thing to do – we’ll talk about the EU, we’ll promise a future in the EU, we’ll spin tales at rallies, we’ll pose for photos in Brussels, we’ll bribe MPs, we’ll slander opponents, and didn’t even think about addressing the difficult issues. Tackling corruption, for instance. Not only did they not address them. They even lost themselves in the stealing frenzy.
The government relied only on the EU card and the inclusion of Bulgarians in our Constitution. And now? What are we supposed to do? Seven years have passed and they still haven’t realised that they missed the opportunity we gave them to build a normal state. While they were talking about European values, they were thinking only of European money and calculating commissions. So, they’ll now resort to seeking out enemies. Dark forces.
We gave them seven years of our lives to build a decent country that wouldn’t depend on whether Bulgaria puts a veto or not. The most terrible thing is that they’ve led us to such a low point where the future of our state hinges on some amendment to the Constitution for an imaginary future in the EU.
Since 2005, they’ve been spinning tales in Brussels that our EU accession depends only on us, but perhaps they should reserve those stories for the newer EU candidates, while they’re still enthusiastic. Whether we’re accepted into the EU doesn’t depend on us. It depends on 27 countries with 27 interests. We’re fortunate that Great Britain left the EU, otherwise, it would’ve been 28. However, building a normal state does depend on us. A state where people would value honesty, expertise, a state that would provide equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of ethnic background, party-affiliation or lack thereof, a state that would punish crime and corruption impartially. That’s all it takes.
The EU did its job with Orbán’s coffee. The government back home didn’t do its job.
2 Honestly, after 30 years of dreaming about the EU, writing about the EU and being disappointed by the EU, the EU doesn’t worry me anymore. My genuine concern is why politicians don’t take their citizens seriously. What will be the main topic of the upcoming spring elections? A European front versus a Russian front? Some will talk about dark forces, others about traitors?
It’s all piss and wind. Evading the real topic. And the real topic is a diagnosis – an epidemic of corruption, as stated by the U.S. Ambassador Angela Ageler.
The scale of that epidemic has reached life-threatening proportions for the state. That’s evident in the recent case of the demolition at the Old Bazaar in Skopje, which was orchestrated by a criminal association formed to destroy cultural heritage for money. They are not ordinary party soldiers, lackeys promoted to administrative roles in charge of whatever, appointed there just for a pay check and loyalty to the leader. Those are people with professions. One current and three former directors of institutions are under suspicion. And not directors of just any institutions, but of the Conservation Centre, the Cultural Heritage Protection Office, the Cadastre and the Enterprise for State Commercial and Residential Property. We’ve paid them to protect our cultural heritage. And for some additional profit, they ended up destroying our cultural heritage.
Instead of containing the epidemic, the government fuelled it even more with the changes to the Criminal Code which reduced the sentences for officials and made it possible for the statute of limitations on their cases to expire faster. And now a new law has been proposed in the Parliament, one aiming to legalise all illegal constructions from the last 11 years.
The corruption epidemic is reaching zombie apocalypse proportions.
3 In a country facing a zombie apocalypse of corruption, there are also bizarre instances of democracy.
Twelve days before he killed 14-year-old Vanja, Ljupcho Palevski – Palcho, as the president of his party Desna, submitted an initiative in the Parliament for some kind of referendum. The initiative has also been signed by two fellow party members who are in custody as accomplices in the murders for which Palcho is accused.
MPs will discuss Palcho’s initiative on the 22nd of December. Thus, the rule “Everything’s in line with the law, boss” comes full circle.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
