Referendum bitterness

The post-referendum feeling is foggy. Despite the clearly expressed will of the citizens, expressed by 600,000 votes “for”, happened what was largely assumed – the minority who opposed, abstained and boycotted the plebiscitary vote led the process into a tie and took the entire country hostage.

Nowadays, apparently, what mobilizes is the positive vision of the future and opportunities it brings, but what also mobilizes, to some extent, is the fear of “evil”. We see this policy of fear as it continually moves from one problem to the other and makes invaluable damage, no matter that it actually has no clear goal.
The story, in which the ruling leadership in Macedonia and Greece bravely embarked, has fully attracted the attention of the world. But not even the great support sent from German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg etc. managed to activate a certain number of voters.

The disappointing epilogue has been estimated by some, and rightfully so, as retaliation for the lost decades during which in the country on the international level, very little was done to overcome the dispute with Greece, and in that part, as emphasized “EU and NATO did too little for too long.”
Although the outcome of the referendum is not binding, it brought a great disappointment to European-oriented citizens, who, up to the last moment, hoped that reason will overcome among more people instead of emotion. The absence of the desired wide support of the process (37 per cent turnout), as the European media actually assessed, which came to Skopje in large numbers, is a warning signal not only for the development of the country, but also for the future geopolitical orientation of the country.

Macedonia definitely enters a new crisis phase, in which, as Prime Minister Zaev says, “we must not play games”. But weren’t supposed to play games up to now!
It is clear that processes cannot stagnate. They have to move forward, but who can, after all that has happened, guarantee how things will go, although the estimates are moving in the direction that the process, however, will turn the impossible into possible, and it will be finalized at an institutional level.

Zaev announced that we will know in the next few days whether there is an ambience for reaching an agreement with the opposition for a two-thirds majority that is needed to pass the constitutional changes in the Assembly arising from the agreement with Greece, stressing that early parliamentary elections are the second and last option. Among other things, due to the deadlines, which certainly include the elections for the European Parliament to be held in May next year, and in which Greece participates (and, according to certain information, it is possible to be organized along with the parliamentary elections planned for next autumn).
On the other hand, the pressure of the deadlines had its share in this development of events – the majority being subordinated to the minority. Namely, in order to take advantage of the reasonable foreign policies of Zaev and Tsipras, a referendum was organized, abstracting the problem of the turnout and the Voter’s list (from which, for example, the President of the Assembly, as an authorized referendum nominee, Talat Xhaferi, and former President Branko Crvenkovski were missing).

The results of the referendum are, of course, just another confirmation of the profound social polarization and the proof that we were unable to build an agreement on how to reconcile the modernity and the more pronounced sense of nationality in a certain part of the population. The long-created division of patriots and internationalists (traitors) took the victory over reason for the possibility of confirming in what direction the country should move. The additional polarization about the name dispute, which is a huge burden, to just take it off from our backs by blaming each other, leaving the animosity to grow into hatred. These divisions reflect the deep personal and party interests that tear the society apart. As a rule, in such a case, the society stagnates most, and those who are polarized are the only way to point out their own social existence and political positioning.

VMRO-DPMNE played its retrograde role, although it is not in a situation to euphorically dance around like Solza Grceva in front of the Parliament, because with the burden of internal party division and unreality it will have to choose between a “parliamentary vote” to rescue the agreement, or early parliamentary elections. The absence of fifty thousand votes from SDSM supporters and the same number of Albanian votes is valuable for serious analysis and inside the ruling headquarters.

Naum Kotevski