Mickoski’s “Macedonianism” is Opposite to “Macedonia, a Decent Place to Live in”

The Macedonian identity was never abolished so there is no need for Mickoski to retrieve it, and Macedonianism as a system of values is quite opposite to the understanding of Macedonia as a “decent place to live in”

Author: Teofil Blaževski

Hristijan Mickoski, the leader of the main opposition political party VMRO-DPMNE, speaking at a meeting with citizens in Kruševo, gave the following statement deemed as spin:

Spin: I’m saying it everywhere, let’s stop wandering around, let’s stop seeking our identity  in antiquization or northernization. Our identity is Macedonian only, let’s bring Macedonianism back to Macedonia. This is the program and this will be the doctrine of VMRO-DPMNE immediately after the victory on the early parliamentary elections.

We are proud Macedonians who speak Macedonian in their native country Macedonia and no one can erase that, not even a signed agreement.

Macedonianism as a system of values, Macedonianism as a part of our daily life with a strong economy, with the rule of law, with responsibility by anyone who has violated the laws and disgraced the citizens. Macedonianism in the health care system, Macedonianism in the fields of the farmers and stockbreeders, Macedonianism among retirees and young people, Macedonianism in factories filled with workers who receive a monthly income, this is the Macedonianism that I am talking about and this is the Macedonianism that will be the future in Macedonia – a rich, modern, European state.

[Source: Говор на Мицкоски/веб страна на ВМРО-ДПМНЕ, date: 7 November 2019]

Counter-spin:

Mickoski, announcing the scope of his party’s political campaign for the next parliamentary elections, speaks of the “Macedonianism” that needs to be brought back to the country.

Right here is the basic spin, i.e. spinning of the truth with which Mickoski is trying to mislead the public. Namely, is it true that someone has erased or made the Macedonian identity disappear so that the basis of VMRO-DPMNE’s program and doctrine can be: “Our identity is Macedonian only, let’s bring Macedonianism back to Macedonia”?

As has been repeatedly analyzed in detail by the expert public, nothing has changed and Macedonians have not lost their identity after the Prespa Agreement or after the Agreement on friendship, good neighborhood and cooperation between Macedonia and Bulgaria. And since it is true that “our identity is Macedonian only”, then there is a need to “bring Macedonianism back to Macedonia”.

Moreover, a proof of this is the following sentence: We are proud Macedonians who speak Macedonian in their native country Macedonia and no one can erase that, not even a signed agreement.

No one has erased, nor can they erase the term and the meaning of the term Macedonians. It is true, we are Macedonians who speak Macedonian. Are we proud? Well, that depends on each individual and how they perceive Macedonia. Having this in mind, we come to the last point of Mickoski’s statement, who, wishing to disguise the national meaning of the “doctrine”- “let’s return the Macedonianism”, turns to the “whole system of values in the society” in the next paragraph. He says he understands Macedonianism as a value in everyday life, in the economy, education, health, etc.

Here Mickoski spins the truth in two ways. The first spin is that this system of values does not belong only to Macedonians, but also to Albanians, Turks, Vlachs, Bulgarians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Roma and every other citizen living in North Macedonia. That system of values cannot denote “Macedonianism”, but it is a system of values of a democratically oriented, legally grounded and economically prosperous state, which is not a state in which only Macedonians live.

Second, such a system of values, which Mickoski mistakenly calls “Macedonianism”, is nothing more than an uncompromising struggle for values, unfulfilled or destroyed by individuals or by virtually any political, business, and other establishments since the independence of the country. Among other things, many values collapsed during the rule of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI, from 2006 to early 2017.

Additionally, that system of values, since the time of Professor Gjorgji Marijanovic, has been called “Macedonia, a decent place to live in”. Macedonia does not become a decent place to live in by practising “Macedonianism”, but with a commitment to human rights, justice and the state, and also by not giving  wrong and inaccurate statements, such as the one that Macron’s decision to refuse to give a date for negotiations, de facto, is fair and just.

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