Don't hide behind the people

Erol Rizaov
Erol Rizaov, analyst/ Photo: Deutsche Welle

Stopping negotiations with the EU, hiding behind a referendum, is a cowardly excuse that the people have decided that way. What is that determination if it is trumpeted day and night that Macedonia will become a member of the EU, but the Macedonians will disappear, the Macedonian language will disappear, and all others who live in Macedonia will remain with their identity peculiarities.

With such a falsely fabricated and frightening danger that finds "fertile soil" from the citizens' justified resentment of the neighboring blockades and the indecision and selfishness of the EU that Macedonia has been facing for years, there is not a single referendum question that will provide an answer that paves the way for EU membership. The threat of Bulgarianization, assimilation and the disappearance of the Macedonian language is essentially very offensive, because with unbearable ease in the battles for power, a process is conspired in which the Macedonians are presented as an amorphous mass that can be easily mixed and assimilated. It is impossible after all the centuries of existence under various governments.

Such a peacetime "genocide" of self-destruction is possible only if we lose the state. And that can happen if Macedonia remains isolated, and all neighbors become EU members in the next 10 to 15 years. That is why the Government, the Parliament, which means both the government and the opposition, the President of the State, the intellectual and business elites, the media, the religious communities are obliged to resolutely take their share of the responsibility and not hide behind the people, transferring their responsibility not only to the future of all citizens, but also for the survival of the state.

A cowardly excuse

Stopping negotiations with the EU, hiding behind a referendum, is a cowardly excuse that the people have decided that way. What is that determination if it is trumpeted day and night that Macedonia will become a member of the EU, but the Macedonians will disappear, the Macedonian language will disappear, and all others who live in Macedonia will remain with their identity peculiarities.

In other words, the Albanians, the Turks, the Serbs, the Vlachs, the Roma, the Bosniaks and everyone else will be on their own, and there will be no Macedonians, who will assimilate into the Bulgarians.

Only those who fear that Macedonia will manage to preserve the uniqueness of the Macedonian people, language and identity and become a member of the European family can come up with such a nebula, without their participation in the key historical moments when bold statesmanship decisions are made.

If VMRO-DPMNE and the Left and their leaders are sure of their electoral victory whenever the next parliamentary elections are held, then why are these intimidations with assimilation and disappearance of Macedonians necessary. After conquering the power, they can easily break all the agreements that are treasonous and lead to bulgarization. Of course they won't. Their goal is transparently to maintain a tension of high betrayal, of losing identity particularities so that someone else can complete and make the difficult decisions before the elections.

Public figures will sink on that wave of the created environment to win power, and then present the prevention of Macedonians and the Macedonian language from disappearing as a great victory. That will happen, because the truth will prevail that these are benefits that have already been won and confirmed by the fact that Macedonia and Macedonians will enter the EU with all their peculiarities and the Macedonian language without any additions. That this is so, the strongest confirmation is the fact that VMRO-DPMNE does not propose as a referendum question "are you in favor of Bulgarians entering the Constitution, together with all parts of peoples living in Macedonia". That question is very delicate for them, although the answer is known to a large majority of citizens.

When looking for alibi referendums, one should think about the chances of Macedonia starting negotiations with the EU if such referendums were called in Greece and Bulgaria. The answer is known, I believe, to all of us. None. Probably for the same reasons as here, the great Greek patriots are not at all satisfied that there is a single country in the world that bears the name Macedonia, regardless of the compromise addition northern, that the Macedonian language is recognized all over the world, Macedonian citizenship and Macedonian nationality . Bulgarian extremists also talk about the great failure of the policy, because the EU recognizes the Macedonian language, Macedonians will enter the EU as Macedonians, and Bulgarians will be only a small minority living in Macedonia. It is the result of nationalist and radical quasi-patriotic pursuits that share the same language of hatred and intolerance.

When will there be a referendum in Macedonia?

The essence of EU membership is in the pre-accession negotiations, the most difficult stage that Macedonia has to go through in more difficult conditions than most of the current regular members. In the coming probably ten years, and according to some estimates even longer, faced with a large number of difficulties and new blockades not only from its neighbors, Macedonia will have to implement such reforms that it failed to do in the past 31 years with the support of the EU and the West.

As a candidate for membership in negotiations with the EU, those chances are much greater and more likely, regardless of obstacles and occasional setbacks. Establishing trust and good relations with neighbors can speed up those processes, because Macedonia has already completed a part of the obligations if our experts on EU mechanisms can be trusted that in some areas we were better than the countries in the region, which they are already negotiating and have opened several chapters. But what will surely be the biggest problem is the rule of law, judicial reforms and the successful fight against corruption and organized crime and the faster development of democratic processes, not underestimating ecology, economic reforms, education and of course agriculture.

Now you will say, if that is so, if we succeed in that, then why do we have to enter the EU and make painful compromises. The answer is known – because we cannot achieve it alone, without European financial funds and without European knowledge.

And finally, when a real referendum should be held and with what question. The answer is as usual in the past practice, after the pre-accession negotiations have been completed successfully. The question is more or less the same for all new members after receiving the invitation for regular membership – are you in favor of joining the EU? Then you can say NO, but that never happened. Macedonia will one day have such a referendum. The majority will be with an overwhelming resounding YES. The public changes its attitude when things become visible. It needs to be worked out, and politicians and intellectuals who argue that all is lost should keep this in mind when they preach extinction.

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