THE SAVAGES OF THE WESTERN BALKANS

by | 1 October, 2021

Both the ruling and the opposition parties don’t follow the Covid safety protocols at the rallies, but we’re expected to trust them that they’ll keep all the promises they make so generously and casually.

1The government drafted a proposal for a new law, according to which administrative staff will work 36 hours a week instead of 40. They’ll work only 4 hours on Friday.

Why bother working on Friday at all? They shouldn’t strain themselves to go to work for just 4 hours.
What about all of us who are not part of the state administration? What if we want to finish some bureaucratic work on Friday?

The government will say: “Why did you wait until Friday to get things done?”

2 Ok, we know that we here in the Western Balkans can be a pain in the neck. However, we aren’t savages who are so dangerous that they need to be kept away from the EU for twenty years. Since the Thessaloniki Summit in 2003, when the EU took the responsibility to work on the enlargement with the Western Balkans countries, in 2021 we’ve fallen so low that the member states are debating on the use of the word “enlargement” in the declaration for the next summit for the Western Balkans. In case we take what they’re saying for granted. There’s absolutely no logic in reversing the integration process, after almost twenty years of meeting all sorts of benchmarks, filling out questionnaires, waiting for the reports of our progress to the EU, conferences and summits, and even raise the issue of abolishing the visa-free regime. Not only has the EU imposed a sense of inferiority on us, but it’s supporting the prejudice of its citizens about the people who live in the Western Balkans. In that way it’s strengthening its xenophobic and regressive forces, which have nothing in common with the European values the EU expects us to comply with.

They shouldn’t send Ursula von der Leyen, as they used to send Juncker and Barroso from time to time to tell us that the EU loved us. We’ve been living and hoping for that EU for 30 years, believing in the European values of equality, justice, prosperity. We’ve spent our whole life having faith in a united Europe. However, we’ve long since stopped believing that the European ideals are really respected and practiced by the EU member states. We feel that on our skin.

Well, half of the people have already moved out. Some by getting a Bulgarian passport, some by getting married, some illegally, some legally, the people of the Western Balkans are already in the EU. And in the meantime, the economic gap between us Europeans here and them Europeans there is just widening year in, year out.

I don’t understand why it’s not in their interest for this territory in the heart of Europe to be stable and prosperous. No one in their right mind would keep this whole region isolated. That isolation means instability. Even if they do it for their own selfish reasons, do they really want instability in the middle of Europe, within their borders, in the 21st century? If that’s the planned development of the EU, to keep us instable, then we’ll have to find a solution to the problem on our own.
We, “the savages” of the Western Balkans, want to live in peace, democracy and prosperity.

3 Just what are the ruling and the opposition parties thinking when they promise the earth in the election campaign? We didn’t live somewhere else until yesterday, did we? Perhaps in some other municipalities, in another country, on another planet? As if we suddenly came into being just before the local elections, we woke up one morning and just by looking at the billboards with Photoshopped faces and the videos on TV we would be convinced that our municipality would be the greatest in the world. With exactly those Photoshopped junctions and roads.

Both the ruling and the opposition parties don’t follow the Covid safety protocols at the rallies, but we’re expected to trust them that they’ll keep all the promises they make so generously and casually. By the way, no one promised they’d collect the garbage and clean the streets every day. Twice a day if need be. They got carried away in fantasizing, and didn’t say they’d clean on Sunday or on a holiday.

Everything they promised has nothing to do with what their job has been so far. I don’t understand, how can they think someone would vote for them just because they’re now paving the street that was full of potholes for 4 years. Just imagine – they’re patching potholes. They’re changing the asphalt. They’re repairing pavements. They’re buying dumpsters. That’s how low they’ve set their criteria. They present doing the daily work they’re paid for as an accomplishment.

4 Branko Crvenkovski was the Prime Minister and President of the state for a total of 13 years. In the beginning of the post-communist transition. In a period when all the corrupt disasters were made, the ones we still can’t recover from. Branko can’t bash the present, especially not the prospects for the future of the country, as if he doesn’t have any responsibility for why we are as we are. When he speaks, as he spoke at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, he should think about his own role and responsibility.

And Gjorge Ivanov, who wanted to declare a state of war to prevent a change of government after legal elections, who pardoned criminals according to a list made by the party which set back democracy, shouldn’t even get a chance to speak.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski