The Prime Minister of the Republic of Northern Macedonia announced that he expects an intensive dialogue with the Bulgarian representatives in search of a solution before June 22
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama arrives in Sofia quickly, not to negotiate Corridor №8, but to seek a discount on the road to the EU
Zoran Zaev hastened to find a solution to the dispute with Bulgaria before June 22, after missing so much time for contacts with Sofia. But this was a period in which he did his best to blame Bulgaria alone for the lack of progress. He even used such a dictionary, became so engrossed in verbal equilibristics and in search of linguistic metaphors that he turned against himself and his most loyal supporters in our country as well.
The diplomacy of Northern Macedonia is currently suffering from a methodological problem. This is the desire to remove from the political and state elite near Vardar the responsibility for the congestion in which our bilateral relations found themselves and continued to find themselves in a hopeless situation. Both Zaev, Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov, and even President Stevo Pendarovski decided that by declaring that “identity and language are not negotiated,” they had drawn their “red line” and thus done their job. Let the other side think for him.
The support they received from some EU member states also contributed to this position of angry young people. You remember – the foreign ministers of Slovenia, Austria and the Czech Republic went to Skopje to call on Bulgaria to “let” Northern Macedonia into membership talks. I have quoted many times the words of Professor Denko Malevski, the first foreign minister of a sovereign and independent Republic of Macedonia, according to whom “alliances are created to defend the interests of their members, not the candidates for membership.” Malevski himself has repeatedly written about this as a warning to today’s political class in Skopje not to expect EU countries to stand in support of Northern Macedonia against Bulgaria. But it also happened. Which is a problem of our native diplomacy as a sign of poorly done preliminary work among our partners in the EU to explain to them the essence of the dispute with the candidate Northern Macedonia and our position. On top of that, I hear that German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has proposed that the rules for vetoing each member state of the European Union be changed.
If this is true, we can immediately accept it as a blow against Bulgaria, which is at least formally the only one stopping Skopje from starting membership talks. Or maybe it’s some kind of political revenge for the failure of Berlin’s promise last year that Skopje would start the negotiation process during the German presidency in December. What, their favorite and political child Borisov is no longer in power and here we are receiving public slaps. This is not serious and does not befit a country like Germany and its place in Europe. Besides, I must admit that I am not sure whether the Bulgarian “veto” is not supported by other member states, which are hiding behind Sofia’s position without announcing their disagreement with the start of Skopje.
And another thing impresses me – at one point Zoran Zaev threatened to find a way to meet with the caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev. He had even suggested that this could happen at one of the three border crossings between the two countries. This immediately reminded me of the demonstration of fraternal solidarity and mutual assistance at a critical time that Serbian President Alexander Vucic and Zaev himself made on a cold and windy February day at the Tabanovce border crossing. Vucic then handed Zaev a box of 4,800 vaccines against Kovid-19 as the first tranche of a donation from Serbia to northern Macedonia. The brief ceremony under the cold wind at the border checkpoint showed Vucic’s condescending attitude towards Zaev, who in turn only had to start kissing his hands.
Now the Prime Minister of Northern Macedonia has set two dates and two forums, where he hopes to have talks with Bulgarian representatives, it is not specified which ones.
The first is the NATO meeting in Brussels on June 14th, and the second on June 17th in Antalya. And I think that if Zaev is really extremely interested in meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart Yanev in search of a solution to the dispute before June 22, not to wait to see him at the border checkpoint, but to get up and come to Sofia, even if uninvited, revolved around Dondukov 1, but someone was found to open the door for him.
But it would be a precedent, there was no such case in Balkan and European diplomacy. And man, you have money under your feet, you need Bulgarian support and understanding, and the opposition in the face of VMRO-DPMNE has launched a series of daily protests against the lack of transparency about the negotiations, which, according to Skopje, are at the expert level. led with Bulgaria to clarify the “road map”. Get up and come to Sofia, look for a meeting with Yanev or Radev, although I do not see how the two would change the consensus Bulgarian position on the European integration of Northern Macedonia. And to be honest, after everything that Zaev said publicly about Bulgaria, I do not know who would be the Bulgarian Prime Minister, President or Foreign Minister who would sit at the same table with him without first making efforts to overcome the will. and swallow that “the whole world came from the monkeys, only we, the Macedonians – from the Bulgarians.” Whether in Brussels, Antalya or Sofia, the prime minister of the Republic of Northern Macedonia will first have to ask for forgiveness for everything he has done in recent months to scold even more people on both sides of the border and blame Bulgaria . And only then to say what worries him and what he expects from us.
Zaev has an example of such an approach. Eddie Rama, who recently won the parliamentary vote in Albania at the head of his socialists, is visiting Bulgaria. During his two-day visit, he will meet with caretaker Prime Minister Stefan Yanev. Of the topics listed in the official announcement for the visit, the last one is probably the most important. The issue of Albania’s European integration would be discussed. Concise, but extremely clear. What else excites Rama after it became clear that Brussels is urging Albania to go in tandem with northern Macedonia on the path to membership talks. Naturally, stopping Skopje’s candidacy also hinders Tirana in some ways. So there is no way for the former basketball player and former mayor of the Albanian capital not to lobby for support for his country from Bulgaria, which means to indirectly ask for support for Skopje as well. If that Zaev pretends to be a big player and will look for meetings with Bulgarian representatives on a neutral ground – Brussels, Antalya or elsewhere, instead of coming to Sofia, why not use an intermediary of the caliber of the three-time Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama. Which in turn confirms the feeling that Zaev already understands the negative effect of what he has already done for his and his government’s positions in Bulgaria. I hope he has set foot on the ground, where he has a lot of money.
And when and if she comes to Sofia, she can go to Bankya to see Boyko Borisov and ask him how the two of them got her to Bulgaria to stop Northern Macedonia from joining the EU. If Borisov accepts it, of course.
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