No, no matter how hard he tries, Hristiyan Mickoski will not be able to be a Balkan copy of one of the great political figures of humanity. No matter how hard he tries to do it. He will not be able to resemble Winston Churchill with his promises to the British for “sweat, blood and tears“. Or Ronald Reagan, who from “Unter der Linden“ shouted to Mikhail Gorbachev to remove the wall that had separated Berlin and Germany for years.
This is what he commented on for "Trud" Kostadin Filipov.
I doubt even whether he will bring him to Aleksandar Vučić, his mentor and patron, whom he persistently and daily tries to copy. He will not even resemble Nikola Gruevski, who took him out of business and made him his deputy in the party, to later become its chairman. The options are falling away one by one, but since the man Mickoski has been living in an imitation mode from his first steps in politics, from which he cannot or no longer wants to get out, there is probably only one thing left for him - to try to copy Slobodan Milošević with his obsession with the greatness of the Serbs and their divine role in the destinies of the peoples of the Balkans.
As someone who has been wallowing in the Balkan issue for quite some time, I have my own personal nightmare. It comes from time to time to remind me how harmful and dangerous the mass delusion is that the leaders instill in their voters, followers and sympathizers. The nightmare, insofar as it really is one, is connected with the date June 28, 1989, Vidovden, when in Gazimestan, just a few kilometers from Pristina, the capital of the then Serbian province of Kosovo, the Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević gathered a thousand people from all over the country to declare that from that day on, no one would have the right to beat and insult the Serbs. The occasion was the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo Polje against the Turks, which the Serbs lost, but which is precisely why they are currently celebrating it as their greatest victory.
And to this day, there is no exact data on how many people poured into Gazimestan, where to this day the stone monument stands in memory of that great battle. Some point to 200,000 people, others do not play small and state that the listeners of Milošević's speech, gathered from all over Serbia, were one million and above. But both agree that Milosevic's calls for respect for the uniqueness of the Serbs and their right to lead all other peoples in the former Yugoslavia were the fuse that very soon after set fire to the rug of the SFRY and caused its bloody disintegration. The fate of the inspirer of all this - Slobodan Milosevic - is known: political collapse, judicial, legal and moral verdict, physical end.
Kosovo is already a sovereign and independent state, but Belgrade's claim to the rich Serbian cultural, spiritual and historical heritage on the territory of the young republic is still insistent. So much so that it serves as the main argument for Serbia not to recognize that Kosovo is already a separate entity and another state, which - again according to the established mythology, is the cradle of Serbian spirituality.
However, in this case, we are interested in something else. And it is something that scares me personally. It also scares me because I think we didn't pay enough attention to everything that happened last Wednesday. And then, on June 17, the 36th anniversary of the founding of VMRO-DPMNE was celebrated in Strumica. I looked at all the reports about the event on the Internet, I read all the possible texts dedicated to it, paying particular attention to the speech of the party leader and Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, delivered from the rostrum.
As iconography, as direction, as pathos and content of the Prime Minister's speech, all of this, taken separately and together, brought back memories of that now almost forgotten million-strong rally on Kosovo Polje, which was mentioned above. Including through the personal behavior of Mickoski himself, who had obviously organized things in such a way that at every pause, at every breath in his dramatic performance of his speech, he expected applause from the gathered guests of the celebration. And he received it. A great impression of unity and cohesion between the audience and the performer, between the party leader and his sympathizers.
The stadium in Strumica, where this was happening, was full. As it became clear, the pre-election "technology" was put into action, according to which, in exchange for a sandwich and a can of soft drink, people were taken on special free buses to fill the stands and the field of the city's stadium. Local terminology defines this contingent as "walkers" (from "I walk", i.e. I walk), who fill the party's rallies during a campaign, moving from city to city, from rally to rally. And this is not only a patent of the currently ruling party in North Macedonia, but also of all other political forces in the republic, as long as they have the means to do so. It was like that 37 years ago in Kosovo Polje, and it is like that now with our neighbors to the southwest.
Here you can immediately ask me what Kosovo Polje, with its mythological weight, has to do with some Strumica, one of many cities in North Macedonia. Oh, don't be naive! Well, let's think about it. First, 36 years is no anniversary to make such a fuss and the government to throw so much money into organizing it. But Mickoski obviously needed it at this particular political moment at home, in the neighborhood and on the international stage to do it and tighten the party ranks. You know, the European Parliament, stalled EU membership, a progress report, a bilateral dispute with Bulgaria and many other things. Who cares about some arsonist who set fire to the cars of the Bulgarian embassy in Skopje?
Secondly, the choice of Strumica is not at all accidental. On the contrary, it is completely thought out and deliberate. The motive I heard was that this is one of the cities in which VMRO-DPMNE held its congress. But it has "visited" congresses in Kichevo and Prilep, even in Kavadarci and Ohrid, why didn't the choice fall there? Strumica was chosen to rub Zoran Zaev's nose in. And "without a statute of limitations", as they say, because the former prime minister and leader of SDSM has not been actively involved in politics for years. But this does not prevent the media close to the current government from following his every step at home and around the world. Just a day or two after the event in Strumica, all websites associated with the ruling party simultaneously and as if on command published the same photo, which shows a man resembling Zoran Zaev walking on the deck of a yacht. Somewhere in the world, obviously.
For many years, Strumica was governed by mayors from the now opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM), including Zaev himself. You haven't forgotten that the first and perhaps only meeting of the governments of North Macedonia and Bulgaria in the fall of 2017 was held in Strumica as a grand gesture on Zaev's part. In the last local elections, for the first time in a long time, a VMRO-DPMNE member was elected mayor. In any case, Strumica is Zaev's stronghold, and what sweeter and more intoxicating decision of power is this to go there and proclaim on the spot that the previous government headed by him ruined the state and betrayed its interests. Listen to Mickoski: “Get ready for a marathon, because we will have to fight to repair the betrayal and capitulation that the previous, most corrupt Macedonian government in history committed against this people and its homeland“. In Strumica, please!
And thirdly, which is by no means unimportant. On the contrary! If we do not count the small border towns of Kriva Palanka, Delchevo and Novo Selo, Strumica is the first larger city in North Macedonia close to the border with Bulgaria. Moreover, with a special history of joining the Serbian Kingdom after the Neuilly Peace Treaty of 1919. To this day, some ironically, but with a great deal of truth, call it “the most Bulgarian city“ in the country. I also have my sentiments towards this city, because my late mother was born there. So, if Mickoski has something to say to Bulgaria, this is the place.
As they say, if you shout louder, you can be heard in Petrich even without a microphone and loudspeakers. Playing Churchill and promising a “long and difficult struggle to preserve national interests and progress towards a European future“, Mickoski also defined the goal of this struggle. And it is “so that our people on the other side of the border can exercise their human rights, finally register their own institution under which to organize themselves culturally. We have a treaty signed by the previous government, but our eastern neighbor also has 14 decisions from the European Court of Human Rights on the table, which say to immediately register the organization of Macedonians in our eastern neighbor, OMO Ilinden-Pirin“.
Did you hear all this? Me - yes, I don't know about the others.