{"id":137729,"date":"2025-05-16T21:36:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T19:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/goranmihajlovski.com\/?p=137729"},"modified":"2025-05-19T01:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T23:37:11","slug":"macedonia-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goranmihajlovski.com\/en\/i-want-to-say\/macedonia-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"MACEDONIA 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

1<\/span> Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told the President of the European Council, Ant\u00f3nio Costa: \u201cI can\u2019t stand in front of the citizens and tell them that the Constitution will be amended while Bulgaria refuses to implement the rulings of the European Court. Once we have a clear position from the EU and all its members regarding our identity and language, we\u2019ll discuss everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brilliant stuff.<\/p>\n

Costa listened to Mickoski, said he understood we\u2019re frustrated because we changed our flag and our name and then flew off to Tirana, where he stated that \u201cIf Albania continues to deliver at the same rate, it\u2019s quite possible that it will join the EU before 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re about to mark one year since VMRO-DPMNE and VREDI came to power. No one\u2019s denying that SDSM and DUI played a major role in getting us into this mess. The French proposal is bad, but, let\u2019s be honest, Mickoski\u2019s \u201crobust diplomacy\u201d hasn\u2019t managed to change the EU\u2019s Negotiating Framework. A year in, and Mickoski\u2019s daily whining about us being held hostage and treated unfairly by the EU have failed to persuade EU member states not to side with Bulgaria.<\/p>\n

And the fact that Costa says that \u201cfurther efforts to progress towards accession must be guided by fundamental principles: consistency and trust\u201d is just the usual diplomatic fluff that hardly anyone here takes seriously anymore. We expect Bulgaria will continue harassing us by abusing the power of the EU, and we also know that the EU will remain consistent by backing Bulgaria when it does harass us.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that\u2019s the reality. And yes, it\u2019s not fair. But, in contrast to all the complaints back home that international politics isn\u2019t fair, just remember just one word: Gaza.<\/p>\n

At the end of the day, the changes we were forced to make weren\u2019t for nothing. We accepted being temporarily referred to as \u201cThe Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia\u201d in order to become a member of the United Nations. We changed our flag to save ourselves from Greece\u2019s embargo, to lower the risk of the war from the former Yugoslav territories spilling over to us, and for two years, our country wasn\u2019t even allowed to raise its own flag on the flagpoles outside the UN in New York. We added the adjective \u201cNorth\u201d to Macedonia to become a member of NATO.<\/p>\n

So maybe Macedonia\u2019s sad story isn\u2019t as sad as it seems.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s remember, the longer we wait, the more bitter the pill we\u2019ll eventually have to swallow.<\/p>\n

2<\/span> Mickoski wonders how he\u2019s supposed to tell his citizens that, if we want to begin accession talks with the EU, we\u2019ll have to amend the Constitution once again.<\/p>\n

How will he tell them? The same way he\u2019ll tell Macedonian citizens they\u2019ll have to give up on the EU if we don\u2019t do what\u2019s already been agreed, to include the Bulgarians in the Preamble.<\/p>\n

That, in itself, is a fair choice. No EU. Fine, let\u2019s look for another way forward. Let\u2019s stop fooling ourselves with photo ops at every Summit, only to turn around and complain it\u2019s not fair when Albania ends up in a position to veto us.<\/p>\n

3<\/span> Sure, the EU didn\u2019t learn its lesson from 2008, when Greece vetoed our entry into NATO \u2013 they couldn\u2019t care less, they\u2019re the EU, after all. But why haven\u2019t we learned ours?<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t new, we saw it and experienced it all back when VMRO-DPMNE was in power. Yet, we choose to live in a bubble, in a country hijacked by political parties.<\/p>\n

The more I hear, the more it all starts to feel like 2008 again. Even at the \u201cMacedonia 2025\u201d Summit, the guest Mickoski has been introducing for months as one of the people from \u201cTrump\u2019s perimeter\u201d took the spotlight with his statements that he\u2019s interested in investing in archaeology because he heard that someone had discovered the grave of Alexander the Great\u2019s grandmother near Bitola.<\/p>\n

Even the Macedonian government\u2019s obsession with Trump, as a counterweight to the fickle and deceitful Europe, reminds me of 2008. They\u2019re hoping America will save us from this EU hostage situation. In April 2008, US President George Bush was confident that, at the NATO Summit in Bucharest, Croatia, Albania, and Macedonia would receive invitations for membership. After all, the three countries were the inseparable \u201cAdriatic Triple\u201d and were meant to fly together \u201cas a flock in NATO.\u201d And then, bam, despite Bush\u2019s statements, despite his planned speech in Zagreb\u2019s main square right after the Summit that was supposed to mark the accession of all three Balkan states, Greece vetoed, Croatia and Albania soon joined NATO, and the flock disintegrated.<\/p>\n

So here we are, heading back from 2025 to 2008, and at this rate, all that\u2019s left for us it dig graves and go searching for Alexander.<\/p>\n

Even if we do find him, what\u2019s the big deal? We\u2019ve destroyed everything we\u2019ve uncovered so far, we don\u2019t know how to preserve it, let alone sell it as a story. And, truth be told, we can\u2019t even manage to clear the rubbish around it.<\/p>\n

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told the President of the European Council, Ant\u00f3nio Costa: \u201cI can\u2019t stand in front of the citizens and tell them that the Constitution will be amended while Bulgaria refuses to implement the rulings of the European Court. 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