Frau Merkel does not come empty-handed

Erol Rizaov

German Chancellor Angela Merkel tomorrow will personally extend her best wishes on this country’s biggest holiday, the Independence Day, in the capital of the country. The hopes are high because this is not an ordinary routine Balkan visit. This is the first official visit of a German Chancellor to our country that is ahead of a historic referendum that will mark the future of the state and the citizens. The expectations are that the most powerful lady in the world will not come empty-handed, but will congratulate us with the greetings and the guarantee that Germany will stand firmly behind Macedonia with strong support, as it has done with our neighbors, to open our way to it justify the independence of the state and become part of the European family.

Merkel’s words carry great weight, they are not the empty promises of the Balkan politicians.

Citizens of Macedonia know this, they trust Merkel, and they see a great friend in Germany, as well as the biggest and most powerful economic partner of EU member states. Merkel’s specific support will remove the distrust of the EU’s sincerity that hit Macedonia after the start of the negotiations for the next year, although the expectations were to begin immediately after the signing of the Treaty with Greece and after electoral changes in Macedonia, because it is a country that has been a candidate for EU membership for 13 years, and the reforms last for years until all the requirements of the Brussels chapters are met. The rapid start of negotiations and the opening of the first chapters will remove any suspicions that next year’s possible prolongations are possible. We hope that Merkel in Skopje will make that clear as one of the biggest pre-referendum manipulations of the opponents of the agreement, and thus the Euro-Atlantic integrations of Macedonia.

Chancellor Merkel and her ministers will also specify the financial support from the pre-accession funds of the EU, but also from Germany, which Macedonia can get on the road to Europe.

It’s been 27 years since we celebrated the independence of Macedonia on the Skopje square, but this great holiday has lost its beauty through the decades. Macedonia, although achieving its century-old aspiration for its statehood, failed to achieve its greatest strategic goals: to provide a better and more quality life for the citizens, greater safety and security, faster economic development, equal opportunities for young people and access to quality education, to build a law-abiding state with the rule of law, to have equality for all before law, freedom and democracy, independent media, clean environment and become a full member of the EU and NATO – a small and well-crafted European democratic state in which happy citizens live.

Unfortunately, none of these goals has been achieved even after 27 years of independence. Macedonian politicians, except in the first years of independence, when they parted peacefully with Yugoslavia, showed no statesman wisdom. They always thought more about conquering power, privileges, and opportunities for easy enrichment than the future of the state and the citizens. Most politicians in this transition period were main characters in scandals and corruption scams, and there was only a handful of statesmen, all heavily pressured by constant attacks on their reputation, and also death threats. The academic and intellectual, so-called and self-proclaimed business elites also didn’t reach the stars, and all the institutions of the system were under strong political influence.

With the quest for a more glorious past and with the interventions of politics in science, Macedonia lost both the reputation and the sympathies in the world that were on its side due to the imposed dispute by Greece. All these obstacles are only partially removed by the last parliamentary elections and by the change of power, but still the key changes in the democratization of society, the removal of the impediment of the rule of law, non-partisanism of the administration, media freedom, faster economic development, are serious obligations that can be achieved after a successful referendum.

Four years ago, without pompousness and with unobtrusive personal activity, chancellor Angela Merkel raised the interest of German diplomacy to help Macedonia achieve its strategic goals.

“There has to be A WAY for Macedonia to become a member of NATO and the EU”. This message from Dubrovnik was sent by Merkel to her then colleagues, Prime Ministers Nikola Gruevski and Andreas Samaras, and to the Greek and Macedonian public. Merkel would not be a German if she did not say what it means “There has to be A WAY”. She also wouldn’t be a chancellor if she hadn’t made clear what she meant by making a compromise.

She then made perfectly clear that in Germany there is a compromise when everyone involved in resolving the problem is equally dissatisfied … “the unresolved name issue and the identity between Macedonia and Greece is a burden for all”, Merkel stressed, and said: “I personally got involved in that and I was thinking about all possible combinations of the name, but sometimes I think there is nothing more that can be invented. “

Then we learned that Merkel did a meticulous overview of the lists with suggestions from Nimitz’s bag, that for 20 years were alternately turned down from both sides.

This message from Merkel “I personally got involved in this and think about all possible combinations …”, even now four years later received a strong confirmation that the only way to solve the unsolvable issue for Balkan politicians is a compromise that causes dissatisfaction on both sides. This happened with the Treaty that had to be a compromise, with the usual level of dissatisfaction on both sides. The governments and prime ministers at the time didn’t have an ear for Merkel’s and Germany’s efforts to find a solution. On the contrary, Merkel’s engagement was abused in finding excuses why the name issue is not solved without any willingness to resolve.

Four years have passed since Merkel’s messages in Dubrovnik and the announcement of her personal engagement, that is a total of 27 years for Greece and Macedonia to find themselves in a situation when there were political leaders who were courageous and willing to compromise and mutually acceptable solution, on both sides. It’s up to the rest of the politicians and public figures to decide whether to make an ambient in which the citizens of both countries will be dissatisfied or satisfied. Merkel explained it then with the words: “The name compromise should not make you happy, but give you a sense of righteousness.” How big are the sense of fairness and the determination for the European future of Macedonia, the referendum will show.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will bring good news to Skopje and will clearly announce a strong German support and will encourage politicians and citizens to become united in achieving the strategic goals – for Macedonia to become a European country and ultimately justify its independence as a member of NATO and the EU.