Synchronization or Coincidence:
- Vejc is often the target of criticism from Bulgarian MEPs, who accuse him of being biased towards Macedonia, while in Macedonia his statements are watched with great attention due to his role as a reporter. Releasing old interviews as new is often used for political pressure regarding constitutional changes, but also to create the impression of a “new” wave of demands from Brussels, even though the rhetoric has been the same for a long time.
The debate has flared up again among the local public regarding the need for constitutional amendments as the only possibility to unblock Macedonian European integration, although the official position of the Macedonian authorities is that this cannot happen without guarantees for the predictability of the accession process.
But despite the clear and consistent attitude in these two years, it seems that the pressures from some external and internal factors are further intensifying, especially after Bulgaria faced a series of reactions from some member states of the European Union, who openly demanded that the accession process not be burdened with bilateral issues, but also to change the way of consensual decision-making.
During his recent visit to the country, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Prévot, emphasized that the EU member states should agree on which decisions would be taken by a qualified majority, and not by consensus. He believes that taking decisions by consensus on other issues, not only on the issue of Macedonia’s accession to the EU, made the Union not have a voice on important issues. Germany is also striving to change the voting model.
For their part, Croatian President Zoran Milanović, as well as his Montenegrin counterpart Jakov Milatović, recently emphasized during their separate visits that the accession process must not be held hostage to bilateral issues.
All these statements seem to have set off the alarm for official Sofia, who, after finishing the election process, seems to be moving into a counter-offensive in relation to Macedonian diplomatic efforts.
Recycled interview – defocus or agenda?
Namely, these days the messages that the reporter for the country in the European Parliament, Thomas Weitz, presented in the interview for “Euronews Bulgaria”, in which he criticized the level of implementation of the reforms, the possibility of not receiving European money, but also the blocked process with the constitutional amendments, resonated strongly in the Macedonian public.
– I don’t know which report you read from the reporter Thomas Weitz, on the contrary, the report I heard is the complete antipode of your questions – answered Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, when asked to comment on the statement of the reporter for Macedonia in the European Parliament, Thomas Weitz, that the country has not made any progress in reforms in the last year.
And while the domestic public received the messages of Weitz with a degree of confusion, the man who zealously fought for Macedonia to receive identity guarantees, it was very quickly disclosed that it was an interview that the reporter gave less than two months ago, that is, on March 5, in which the views that he had already expressed during the period when the amendments to the report on Macedonia were submitted to the EP were presented.
The key dilemma that arises is why this interview is being published now and whether by chance the reactions of some domestic political structures coincide only incidentally with the views expressed in the Euronews Bulgaria interview, or whether it is a well-coordinated action. These are just dilemmas to which the Macedonian public is looking for answers and will get them in the coming period.
The parties use every opportunity for mutual confrontation
And while the domestic political parties began to shift the blame for what Weitz pointed out in the interview, the opposition DUI on the same day announced an initiative to collect parliamentary signatures in the Parliament for the inclusion of Bulgarians in the Constitution.
– VMRO-DPMNE cannot leave all communities and citizens hostage. These are serious moments and needs, that’s why we are looking for 30 MPs, and we especially called the MPs from Vlen. Because politicians bond with citizens and the agreement they create based on the program and publicly expressed views. In their program, with face and voice, they promised the same thing. If they have honesty and correctness, they should put their signatures, and then it’s the turn of the MPs from VMRO-DPMNE – said Bejeti at a press conference in the Parliament, adding that this is not political pressure, but, as he added, a real need to move forward as a country and open a perspective for the citizens.
A day earlier, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and member of DUI, Bujar Osmani, emphasized at a debate regarding European integration that the country is not under enough pressure to implement the constitutional amendments. He pointed out that when there is no pressure from Europe for constitutional changes or for progress, it is not good news, but a sign of isolation. His view is that without that external “incentive” (or pressure), domestic political actors relax and the process stagnates, to the detriment of the citizens.
And the president of SDSM, Venko Filipce, has come out with very similar and sharp rhetoric in the last few days. His statement was a direct reaction to Prime Minister Mickoski’s views that the country is ready to wait for decades if it does not receive solid guarantees.
A strange coincidence of the same requirements
The key question in the discussions with several interlocutors was whether it is possible in politics, especially in the Balkans, for several key events to coincide on the same day just by a game of fate.
– When the Bulgarian media suddenly “recycles” a two-month-old interview of MEP Weitz, where constitutional amendments are decisively demanded, the first alarm for an information operation is lit. Why exactly now the reporter’s old views on Macedonia are being packaged as “exclusive news”? The answer may not lie in Sofia, but in the perfect timing with domestic political maneuvers. Almost at the same time, DUI activated the parliamentary procedure for collecting signatures for the same constitutional amendments, while former Minister Osmani publicly lamented that Brussels did not already exert “enough pressure” on Skopje. When you add to this the alarmism of the opposition leader Filipce that the country is in a complete standstill, you get the impression of a well-oiled internal-external machine. This orchestrated rhetoric creates an artificial atmosphere of “urgent crisis”, precisely at the moment when Macedonian diplomacy began to gain more and more vocal allies in the EU, who believe that bilateral disputes must not hinder the process – analyze our interlocutors, who wished to remain anonymous.
According to them, it is completely incomprehensible why, instead of a state consensus for strengthening the positions in front of Brussels, certain internal centers of power choose to undermine the Macedonian fortress in the hope that the EU will give them power in the country.
– We can only assume, that is, is it about working for someone else’s agenda, which aims to break the negotiating power of the state before it stabilizes at all, or is it something else? It is extremely symptomatic that this wave of “pressure from within” appears just when the international arguments for moving bilateralization off the approach path began to weigh more. It is (un)clear who is bothered by the Macedonian unification around the national red lines and whose interests are more important than the state position at this critical geopolitical moment, but time will tell if this is the case. The indications lead to the conclusion that the coincidences in Macedonian politics are only well-planned scenarios, and, unfortunately, we were convinced of this through many similar examples in the past. When a person burns himself on the milk, then he also blows on the butter – stated our interlocutors.
