Stunned, and finally bored by our political instability, our society completely ignores the growing revolutionized an anti-Bulgarian campaign in North Macedonia. After we accepted the “French“ proposal and lifted our veto on starting negotiations with Skopje for EU membership, we decided that we had closed a certain page that confronted us with the western neighbor and made our European partners see our behavior as strange and unconstructive.< /p>
This is what Georgi Georgiev commented on "Voices".
What we perceived as an end to the inter-neighborly quarrel and a compromise on our part, however, turned into a detonator for Macedonianism, which fell into extreme hysteria and, what is more dangerous, managed to form a significant public consensus around itself. Today, practically all Macedonians (I exclude the Albanian minority) resolutely reject the possibility of Bulgarians being listed as a minority in the country's constitution. While similar objections to Croats, Montenegrins or “Egyptians” there isn't. Which is extremely symptomatic. Today's Macedonians are not just NON-Bulgarians, they are ANTI-Bulgarians. And here it is no longer a question of identity, but of a search for that universal culprit, on whom the responsibility will fall for all the mishaps and traumas that the people around Vardar suffered during their transition. (The funny thing is that we see a typical Bulgarian reflex - always someone from outside must be to blame)
The problem is that for the fragile and unstable Macedonian society, the question of the confrontation with Bulgaria becomes a fundamental political refrain. The key to political success inside the country lies in taking increasingly extreme and violent positions against Sofia.
It is a dangerous illusion to think that we will reverse this trend through tolerance, leniency, cultural and scientific exchange or any other positive approaches. On the contrary, any Bulgarian compromise will strengthen the Macedonian sense of superiority and the feeling that the conversation with Sofia should be conducted only from a position of strength. And their every success will be a testimony of their right to bet on their extreme nationalism and will motivate them to become more and more radicalized.
Skopje's current proposal, that the changes in the constitution concerning the Bulgarians come into force simultaneously with the entry of North Macedonia into the European Union, is in fact a trial balloon testing Bulgarian and European naivety, not to say stupidity. If it passes, anti-Bulgarianism will have proven its high effectiveness and no wonder it will become something like an unofficial ideology of the entire country. And if this country, in its current form, becomes a member of the EU, woe betide us.
That is why we must approach North Macedonia, which has fallen into the grip of extreme anti-Bulgarianism, as radically as possible. The only medicine against modern Macedonian nationalism is the Albanian “antibiotic”. Since we are unable to overturn the psychological attitudes reigning in Vardara, we must use them in our own interest and direct them in a direction that will be destructive to the Macedonian statehood itself in its current form. Better to have an Albanianized Macedonia to the west of us than this one in its current form.
Under "Albanization" I mean not the demographic aspect, but the political one. When the foreign policy of North Macedonia is freed from the clutches of nationalism and will begin to be dictated directly by the Albanian parties or certain international institutions. This will happen if the current foreign policy trend starts to become more and more unacceptable for the Albanian part of the population and its political representatives. To the point of questioning their loyalty to the country and provoking processes of separatism. Then, the issue of European integration will become an existential one for Macedonia. And the change of the constitution concerning the Bulgarians will be seen by the authorities in Skopje as the smallest problem they face.
For this purpose, first of all, Bulgaria must devote all its diplomatic efforts to deepen the time gap in the negotiation processes of Tirana and Skopje, regarding the start of negotiations for EU membership. In this regard, odious types like today's Macedonian Prime Minister Micko(v)ski, can perfectly play the role of useful idiots.
Just as some big politicians in Skopje wasted 30 years of historical time, hoping that they would drag Greece into the dispute over the name and the flag, so it would be nice if the current government dedicated its mandate to the promenade of the French pretext. If they rely on Orbán's help, it will be perfect. A greater recipe for failure cannot be invented.
During this time, we must work in front of our Euro-Atlantic partners to present what is happening in North Macedonia as an unspoken reorientation of the country in a geopolitical aspect. And VMRO-DPMNE as an instrument of Belgrade and Moscow. The media buzz around Vardar, which presents BRICS as an alternative to the EU, will fit our argument perfectly.
If we are heard and understood in Brussels, the suspension of pre-accession funds for North Macedonia will become inevitable. After all, it is not bad for the citizens to feel some negative effect from the political choice they made in the last parliamentary elections.
Bulgaria should also tighten its policy of issuing Bulgarian passports (and their replacement) to citizens of North Macedonia. This should be done under the additional condition that they declare their Bulgarian nationality to the authorities in Skopje. Which should also be entered in their Macedonian passports. In this way, the thesis about the 3,500 Bulgarians in the country will be seriously undermined.
If we manage to delay as much as possible the process of North Macedonia starting EU negotiations, the country will find itself in the perfect political storm. There will be growing Albanian separatism, political and economic isolation of the country and a split of the Macedonian national core. Consequences that Macedonian nationalism will neither be able to overcome nor escape responsibility for their occurrence. Which will predetermine his political disaster.
Skopje's only hope remains the possibility that foreign policy in Sofia will fall into the hands of people like Kiril Petkov and Vesela Cherneva, who... we know what they will do.