1 No other country has ever faced instability caused by EU accession talks. Our obsession with the EU, for thirty years already, has been grounded on our belief that becoming a member of that community of states would provide stability and prosperity. And what happened? Instead of providing stability, EU is destabilizing Macedonia through Bulgaria.

The precedent the EU set with Macedonia will result in long-term consequences not just for us but also for them, since it leaves the door wide open for encouraging anti-democratic forces, regardless of whether they are Russian at the moment, Chinese or who knows what kind of forces in future. And the EU refuses to see that out of arrogance.

I don’t want to even imagine what would’ve happened if someone had died in the seemingly banal shooting incident at the Skenderbeg Square in Skopje when the protesters were marching against the French proposal.

Our hearts are now in Macedonia, and our minds are in the EU. No matter if we accept or reject the negotiating framework we’re facing instability. Not because the Macedonian people doesn’t want to join the EU, but because it was subjected to unique conditions that insult its dignity. We started with the Copenhagen criteria, continued with benchmarks, one veto, a second veto, a negotiating framework and we ended up with – the protocol. We’ve come to the realization that when things start going downhill for the EU, like now when they’re under pressure with the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and the covid crisis, they’re prepared to sacrifice the fundamental civilisational value – the right to self-determination. No matter how much they convince us that’s not the case, that’s what it comes down to in the end. It comes down to the sixth grade history workbook.

Welcome to the real world where the expression “European values” is just a phrase with no real meaning. Having illusions about the EU is our problem. It’s not the EU’s problem. And since we want to be part of that club, we have to come to terms with that.

2 In any case, we shouldn’t be afraid that we’ll get bored. If the proposed negotiating framework is accepted, we’re in for yet another change to the Constitution and all the drama that it will bring – sessions until dawn, public hearings, counting votes, bribing MPs, promising directorial positions, friendly messages from abroad, protests, blockades…

Historic moments galore.

3 And so, Bulgaria, as Russia’s greatest mole in the European Union, managed to destabilize Macedonia. The EU has other things to worry about. VMRO-DPMNE, unreformed and uncleansed of criminals, is regaining its strength with populism and nationalism. The pro-Russian, anti-NATO and anti-EU Levica is getting stronger. No one dares punish the corrupt thugs from DUI, and they’re still preaching about European values. Whereas the careerists from SDSM hide their incompetence with arrogance and by bashing others.

We, on the other hand, are angry, displeased and offended that both the government and the opposition insult our intelligence with this catastrophic fantasy for the future, and because it’s obvious none of them are capable of dealing with the present.

So, when they say that it’s not fair, that the proposal isn’t really the best but we’ll keep fighting, keep explaining our positions, negotiating, and that we’ll be inside the framework, on the same table, I wonder – will they bring politicians from Mars to negotiate? These people, out of all the governments so far, have been struggling for years to appoint ambassadors in capitals because don’t know how to divide the positions among the parties, but still dare promise they’ll convince 27 member states with USA’s support. Which administration will you organize in the process? The one which has failed to provide report cards at the end of the school year for two years in a row? Politicians here can’t even free pavements from cars but are adamant that’ll be able to successfully defend our national interests in Brussels.

Have a look at the arguments President Stevo Pendarovski is using to convince us that the French proposal should be accepted. That as a country with 1.8 million citizens and an average salary of 500 euros we wouldn’t be able to arrange a better negotiating framework.

That’s wrong. The president should have said that we can do only so much with this capacity of politicians. With these political elites, who have been in power for the last thirty years. He’s also one of them. The man who, at the beginning of his term, said that if he weren’t the president, he too would have moved out of Macedonia. The supreme commander who got scared by 30 hooligans throwing stones so he didn’t show up for a scheduled TV interview.

Slovenia is small too, is it not? Estonia, Latvia, Cyprus as well… as for Malta, it’s tiny. However, that’s our attitude towards life in general – hold up, we’re small, let’s not make someone angry, don’t ask too many questions, see if anyone can help us, to give us a little push, and then we’ll moan about things, nervously fidgeting with our fingers. And we’ll keep saying to ourselves, well, it could be worse.

Then, why are we surprised that the government is more concerned with the worries of the European Union than ours. If it’s obvious to Europeans that with the war in Ukraine the Western Balkans is important to them, why didn’t our guys say: “Give us a better proposal!”

It’s not surprising that such a defensive attitude led us to this situation of having to choose between instability by saying “yes” for the negotiating framework and instability by saying “no” for the negotiating framework. So, the only “pragmatic way out” that is offered to us is to sit at the negotiating table with the EU countries, take the money from the accession funds and to leave the negotiations if the other 27 countries continue with the Bulgarisation of the accession process.

There’s just a tiny drawback to the “pragmatic way out” – in the meantime, between sitting at the table and possibly leaving the table, we have to agree on what our national interest is. Because our red lines have stretched a lot.

4 In all this anger, frustration and disappointment with the EU, we forgot to rejoice at another historical event of world importance. The Macedonian Assembly should ratify the membership of Finland and Sweden in NATO.

See, president, we’re not that small after all.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski