This story, which will be discussed below, is from those who degrade our relations with North Macedonia to a neighborhood level. And personally, I don't like it at all. For this reason, my tongue simply pulls me to say something that I have repeated hundreds of times, which is the following: if there are five things about which it can be argued whether we are the same as the Macedonians, there are ninety-five others that give an affirmative answer to the question. And one of these ninety-five things is the simplicity that is manifested in the relations between us on both sides of the border. Most regrettably.
This comment for "Trud" Kostadin Filipov.
A popular Bulgarian foundation that works on the ground in North Macedonia has recently accused the MP from the parliament in Skopje, Monika Zaikova, on social media of having an affair with the country's former Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski. The two were together in Sofia these days at a forum where the European Union's relations with the Balkans were debated, generally speaking. And because Zaikova had told Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovachev that she hoped Bulgaria would show its love for the Republic of North Macedonia and "let it in" without conditions into the European Union, the foundation in question is demanding that she reveal her personal affair with Kovachevski in a way that would allow him to freely divorce his wife. Something like that. But stupid, so it's a rant.
Obviously, the authors of this public denunciation on social networks wanted to demonstrate their knowledge of current news from the Skopje gossip mill. Look how deep we are into the informal life of prominent figures near Vardar! Pure pub bragging, if you ask me. Two popular names from political life in the neighboring country had a relationship. Big deal! They are neither the first nor the last to do it. The world is full of such examples that neither prevent it from developing and moving forward, nor does the moral assessment of such a manifestation become stricter. But since the authors of this “information“ have decided that it may be curious for the Bulgarian consumer of gossip and that in this way it will discredit the participants in it, let them do it. That's their job. Or maybe they thought that in this way they would make Skopje's position more vulnerable in the dispute over who is blocking their path to full membership in the European Union, since it is represented and defended by people like these two, who have allowed themselves sentiments towards each other?
It is precisely because of the answers to these possible questions that I am outraged by the fact that the personal feelings and vacillations of one or another politician in our neighboring country are presented as a criterion by which to evaluate their political positions. We are confusing the private and personal with politics, which I do not like at all. And it is not right to do so. Rest assured that I also have something to say about the flip side of the lives of, say, all the prime ministers of North Macedonia from Ljubcho Georgievski, Branko Crvenkovski, through Zoran Zaev, to Hristijan Mickoski (and not only about them!), but I have always refrained from doing so, writing or speaking about them as politicians and statesmen. In a society like the one near Vardar, in a country like today's North Macedonia, where informal ties between people are stronger and more effective than formal ones, where everyone was in kindergarten with everyone else, or sat on the same bench, or were in the army or at university together, or are neighbors or relatives, there is no way it could be otherwise. Everyone knows everything about everyone. Province, that's what it's all about!
Oh, I also know this thesis that you can't fight the simplicity that comes from across the border except with the same, even sharper simplicity. That's all they understood there. Which in turn empties our relations of any intelligence, the deficit of which in our dialogue is visible to the naked eye. We have claims that we are a far older country, that we are ahead in Europe, that as active members of the European family we are getting rid of provincialism and the Balkan mentality, and we allow ourselves to degrade ourselves and descend to the primitive level with which they “work” from beyond us.
If you disagree with the political opinions of the aforementioned Zaikova, let her understand, but do it in a smart and intelligent way, without acting like a regional macho who uses sarcastic hints about the things that happen in the bedroom. If you have objections to Dimitar Kovachevski, you should have expressed them when he was the prime minister of the neighboring country and together with his Bulgarian colleague Kiril Petkov they planned to turn things around in our bilateral relations. And they turned them around so much that to this day we wonder how to get out of the mess they got us into. Kiril Petkov also had some such hobbies, which we discussed so diligently and maliciously in our country. And that was more palatable for conversation and debate than the politics he followed, I guess. Let's be clear - I am neither rushing to defend Monika Zaikova, whom I know only by name, nor justifying Dimitar Kovachevski for his infatuation, if all of this is really true. These are people with their own biographies, with certain political positions and status in society, with integrity, who can take care of themselves. Or at least that's what I hope. If I allow myself to be a little rude, I will say that I don't actually give a damn about them. They are adults, they should get better, there is someone to judge them and it shouldn't be us. That's what I think.
In fact, Zaikova's hints that Bulgaria should show its love for North Macedonia and change its position on its European integration are nothing new. They are an element of the understanding of a large part of the political and public elite in Skopje that Bulgaria is a naive and stupid country, whose sentimental historical complex towards the Vardar River must be denied, but also used when necessary. And in a subtle way, by tickling the strings of family ties on both sides of the border, of the maternal or sisterly feelings that Bulgarians feel towards the people in the neighboring country, of the memory of the victims given in the name of the freedom of Macedonia, and so on.
And they always talk about the Bulgarian guilt towards Macedonia, they always remind about it, without being fully aware whether Bulgarians have it today or not. They know about these things brought from the north there, but as a manifestation of pure Balkan cunning or local sleight of hand, they have them in their arsenal, to put them into action when the specific political situation requires it. And what a pressing and demanding situation is the one with the blocked European integration of North Macedonia, the reason for which, according to the general opinion in Skopje, is the position of Bulgaria. True or not, real or not, it does not matter to them.
They have named our country as the main culprit for the stalled path forward towards European membership and it is very difficult for anyone to convince them otherwise. They do not want “bilateralization” in the search for a way out, but instead of solving the issue in Brussels, they are looking to Sofia again. Here is Prime Minister Hristiyan Mickoski, who from Washington in an interview with the MIA agency again requested guarantees that this, with the inclusion of Bulgarians in the constitution, will be the last condition on the part of Sofia.
And that the solution must be sought between the two countries, but with the participation of representatives of the European Union. And then a certain Monika Zaikova, a member of parliament in North Macedonia from the Liberal Democratic Party there, will appear, come to the Bulgarian capital to participate in some forum and will start here, on local soil, as they say, on our terrain, to tug at our Bulgarian sensitivity for the fate of the people across the border.
At one point we might even think that she is speaking sincerely, because we suffer from that notorious “paternalistic syndrome“. And we, instead of responding as befits a cheeky and cunning politician from Skopje, will watch him crumple the sheets with whom in the hotel. Complete simplicity that I cannot swallow. And it's not the only one, you might say, when you look at what our politicians, public figures, and even our journalist brothers say and do.
And then come and tell me that we are not the same as those across the border. Including in the simplicity with which we fill our relationships.