Political Europe is yet to enter a period when EU-states, their institutions and political elites will look for new mechanisms to protect national and state identity (2)
Already on January 22 of this year, in his address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed that one must not passively accept the current geopolitical reality now that the international order is collapsing rapidly.
– We are not subordinate to this world. We can form it with our strength. We must use our own strength – said Mertz then, emphasizing that states should not be subordinate to anyone, but protect their sovereignty and shape their own future with their own strength.
These attitudes of Merz are absolutely applicable in the case of Macedonia: neither Macedonia, nor the Macedonian people and other citizens must accept subordination to Bulgaria, the EU and its institutions. Macedonia and the Macedonian people together with all other Macedonian citizens should use their own strength for the purpose of protecting their sovereignty and building a future contrary to the one that Sofia and Brussels are designing, dictating European integration ultimatums and unacceptable demands for reshaping the Macedonian ethno-linguistic and identity-historical complex through the change of the Macedonian constitution.
The now leading German party and at the national level Alternative for Germany and its leader Alice Weidel have been a step further from the mentioned January positions of Merz, and now in June maybe even two steps further. While Merz stands for a stronger Germany and Europe within the existing EU, the AfD with its program documents and Alice Weidel with its public and parliamentary speeches seek further protection and strengthening of German sovereignty and go a step further. The latest party documents of the AfD and speeches of Weidel show continuity and further emphasis on the topics of greatest importance to them: national sovereignty, the limitation of the competences of Brussels and the protection of the national German identity, embodied in Germany as the nation state of the German people.
A video message with the title: “The national state is irreplaceable!” was published on the official portal of the AfD parliamentary group. This is also a message addressed to Brussels, not only as an announcement of what the AfD will strive for, if it takes the helm of the German state in the near future. It is also a principled defense of Germany as a nation state in international relations with all its basic features: German language, history, culture and German national identity, which distinguishes Germans from other European nations. The headline “The EU is a threat to freedom of speech in Europe” on the program of the Democratic Congress, organized by the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag on June 26-27, is particularly telling. As announced, Alice Weidel will speak about the EU in general “as a source of threats”.
These are important messages for Macedonia as well, coming from one of the several most important countries in Europe: as soon as the Germans strive to protect their national identity and the sovereignty of Germany as their national state with all the hallmarks of identity, including history and language, don’t they have the right and can’t the Macedonians also strive to protect their Macedonian national identity, language and history?
Currently, the leading German party AfD perceives the EU as a source of threats to their country. How should Macedonia and the Macedonian people perceive the resolution of the European Parliament, one of the most important institutions of the EU, which calls for “tangible results” in building a “common history” with Bulgaria?! How to perceive this resolution, which also demands the implementation of the infamous second protocol, whose sole purpose is the Bulgarianization of everything that bears a Macedonian sign: from history, language, to the identity of the Macedonian people?
The Swiss do not want to lose their national and Swiss identity
character of his country, nor his own political control over it
Now, when Macedonia is facing real political aggression from Sofia and Brussels to introduce the “state-building Bulgarians” into the Constitution, which would mean the widest opening of the doors for the complete Bulgarianization of the Macedonian ethno-linguistic and identity-historical complex, the latest lessons, which also come from Switzerland, should be applied in opposing these destructive anti-Macedonian processes. In this country, on June 14, the latest referendum was held under the motto “No to Switzerland with 10 million inhabitants”. That initiative, supported by the Swiss People’s Party, called for Switzerland’s population not to exceed 10 million by 2050 and for that purpose to introduce restrictions on immigration. The referendum failed, but was supported by 45 percent of Swiss voters.
For them, the issues of immigration, demographic growth, and the protection of national identity still remain among the most important topics in Swiss politics. This referendum initiative is directly related to the issues of Swiss national identity and the preservation of the Swiss character of the state. Although the aforementioned party carefully presented the initiative as a matter of the sustainability of the Swiss state, many of its supporters saw and supported it as a defense of Swiss identity.
The leaders of the Swiss People’s Party repeatedly emphasized before the referendum, but also after it, that “the Swiss way of life must be preserved.” In their public speeches, they warned: “Switzerland must not become a country in which the domestic population loses political control over its own state!”
So, the Swiss do not want to lose their national identity and the Swiss character of their country, nor their own political control over it! Just like the Swiss, the Macedonians do not want to lose their Macedonian national identity and the Macedonian character of their country in exchange for European perspectives, which are now reduced to “voiceless membership” in the second European league?! But even that is achievable only on the condition that all Sofia-Brussels blackmails, dictates and ultimatums, which would never end, are accepted. As a counterweight and shield against those blackmails, dictates and ultimatums, in addition to the further implementation of the reform agenda, Macedonian European integration should be rethought in the direction of connecting with the mentioned initiatives, programs and public demands throughout the new sovereignist Europe, for which national identities are a top priority.
Regarding the lessons that the Swiss referendum, although unsuccessful, sends to Macedonia as well, we also list the most important insights from the scientific paper “Vote for isolation? What does the referendum of the Swiss population mean for Europe?” by Dr Adrian Favero, which was published on 10 June 2026 on the website of the London School of Politics and Economics. Favero is a professor of European politics and an expert on European integration at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
Favero points out that “the Swiss referendum sends a signal far beyond Switzerland’s borders.”
– This politically explosive referendum initiative is presented not only as a tool against migration but also as a defense of national sovereignty and identity. So it’s not just a Swiss thing. It is an example of a wider European trend – this European expert points out.
He cites another goal for which the Swiss declared themselves.
– The referendum represented a declaration and whether Switzerland should remain an open country in the heart of Europe or turn into a political fortress in relation to the neighboring countries and the EU, in order to secure its future primarily through isolation – concludes Adrian Favero in his scientific paper.
The referendum declaration in Europe’s most stable and most advanced lifestyle country on June 14 failed, but the fact remains that 45 percent of the Swiss population voted, as Favero says, “to turn Switzerland into a political fortress vis-à-vis neighboring countries and the EU, to secure its future”! That’s why we have to ask ourselves if Macedonia can remain an open country in the heart of the Balkans and in Europe, but at the same time turn into a kind of “political fortress that cannot be demolished” against the attempts of the neighboring countries to dispute the Macedonian identity, which is now Sofia’s primary goal?!
Brunbauer: Bulgaria’s dreams will not stop, nor Macedonia’s “EU entry game”!
Back in 2023, in his scientific paper “Side Effects of ‘Phantom Pains’: How Bulgarian Historical Mythology Hinders S. Macedonia’s Accession to the EU”, Austrian historian Dr. Ulf Brunbauer, a professor at the University of Regensburg, Germany, warned that the “game of joining the EU” is underway with Macedonia. This historical expert argued crystal clearly that by running that game for the divine entry of Macedonia into the EU, as he wrote, “in fact, Sofia is hijacking Macedonian European aspirations in order to realize her dreams of a ‘San Stefano Bulgaria, because her phantom pains have never stopped since 1878 for the Macedonian territory, language and identity.”
– Bulgaria denies the uniqueness of the identity and history of the Macedonian people and leads a brutal war of aggression and cultural destruction. Bulgarian irredentism calls into question the existence of the Macedonian people. The nationalist pathology of Bulgaria has become the official policy of the EU, but it does not pay any price for its obstruction of Macedonia, even though it has undermined the priorities of the EU – concluded Ulf Brunbauer in his scientific paper, which is his confirmation of the conclusion that the possible Brussels-Sofia guarantees for Macedonia are pointless.
Saint Toevski
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