Xhabir Deralla

For decades, the society in North Macedonia has been living in a dangerous illusion. On paper—whether performing for the international community or issuing hollow party declarations—the country is consistently sold as a “successful multiethnic story.” But it takes just one look behind the thin pro-European facade to see a completely different reality. Institutions, education, and the political system are deeply segregated, and systemic discrimination is part of the grim everyday life for people whose identity and affiliation are a heavy burden they are forced to carry 24 hours a day, their entire lives, for generations.

This condition is not the consequence of some innate hatred among the citizens. As the great Nelson Mandela would say – “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”

In the case of this Balkan society (and it is not the only one), life and politics stop at—people must learn to hate. Ethnic discrimination is a direct product of the systemic hypocrisy of the “moderate” and “democratic” political elites, which serves as the main propellant for toxic nationalism.

Political cowardice and the academicization of reality

Hypocrisy begins with the language used by politicians. In order to avoid facing the real problems of a multicultural and multiethnic society, the political establishment—including the pro-European opposition—hides behind sterile, academicized terms like “interculturalism.” This linguistic escape is nothing but political cowardice. It avoids substantive dialogue on systemic solutions regarding the Albanian community and the implementation of the state’s obligations arising from the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the Constitution, and international law. The same applies to the segregation and systemic marginalization of smaller communities (Roma, Turks, Bosniaks, and others). Everything is done not to disrupt the comfort zone in which the political, academic, and business (oligarchic) elites have survived for generations.

The opposition, which likes to call itself pro-European and progressive, often leaves a massive programmatic vacuum on this subject. Fearing that open anti-nationalist rhetoric will cost them ethnic Macedonian votes, they calculatively remain silent in the face of key issues in this sphere. The exact same diagnosis can (and must) be applied to civil society (mostly Western-funded), academia, experts, intellectuals, and—inevitably—the media. But this conformist silence comes at a high price. When civic forces and the progressive opposition abandon the field where debates are held and concrete solutions for interethnic relations are forged, ethno-nationalists are left with a clear path.

In this created vacuum, the authoritarian, nationalist, and anti-Western ideological-political matrix of the government not only has an easy task, but is given free rein to use ethnic division as the main lever for capturing the state. Without real resistance, the government easily and smoothly implements its radical agenda, turning the country into a hostage to its own political survival.

Constitutional changes – human rights as “national treason”

And let’s not forget the “elephant in the room.” Systemic hypocrisy is very easily exposed in the attitude towards the EU negotiating framework and the obligation for constitutional changes.

The inclusion of Bulgarians and other communities in the Constitution is, in its essence, a matter of respecting fundamental human rights and a logical upgrade to the multiethnic character of society. But instead of being treated as a civilizational step forward and a supreme European value, this process is deliberately spun and portrayed as “national treason” and a threat to identity, pride, dignity… And from all sides come various “positions” and “red lines.”

The political elites—the government through aggressive nationalist propaganda, and the opposition through defensive variations of “red lines” and “national pride”—have completely erased the human rights dimension from public discourse. By doing so, they only prove that the rights of ethnic communities are not a democratic standard to them, but exclusively a bargaining chip and a tool for gathering cheap political points.

A binational spoils system instead of integration

For the current government led by VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition partners – among which Albanian political entities are systemically included, yet essentially marginalized—multiethnicity is reduced to a vulgar political marketplace. The system has been perfidiously transformed into a binational model for dividing the institutional spoils. In that market, Albanians are turned into an obedient voting mass whose basic rights are stripped away piece by piece, while regions with a predominantly Albanian population are systematically neglected, left to sink into poverty and infrastructural chaos.

For the government, toxic and often violent nationalism is not an incident, but a well-developed business model and the most effective tool for maintaining a captured state. Through the continuous heating up of interethnic tensions, the public is skillfully defocused from galloping corruption, economic collapse, and the brutal partisanization of institutions at all levels. With impunity. And even invisibly—concealed by aggressive media manipulation and propaganda.

Once this system of impunity is established, discrimination inevitably spills over onto ethnic Macedonians, turning them into victims of their own “patriotic” elite. In this systemic meat grinder, smaller ethnic communities find themselves in the most difficult position—completely invisible and crushed between the hammer and the anvil of the two dominant ethno-political blocs.

Hypocrisy here reaches its absolute peak. While the leaders of the major parliamentary parties declaratively recite platitudes about European standards, their propaganda megaphones on the ground aggressively spread hate speech. Meanwhile, institutions quietly but effectively segregate society—starting from divided school facilities, all the way to public spaces and cultural life.

An incubator for hybrid threats

Toxic nationalism—whether open, concealed, or silent—is consciously maintained by domestic politicians, at a steep price that carries serious geopolitical consequences. In its years of work, monitoring, and analyses, CIVIL’s teams and associates have consistently pointed out that this very ethnic distance and internal polarization create the most fertile ground for foreign hybrid operations.

When a society is deeply fragmented, citizens not only lose mutual trust, but begin to openly hate each other. This is an ideal terrain for the centers of power waging cognitive warfare, both within the country and against democracy as a whole. The platforms of the “Serbian World” and Russian propaganda have a terrifyingly easy task here—with minimal effort, they manage to paralyze any attempt at European integration, peace, stability, and prosperity.

As I have written many times before—nationalism is the cheapest and most effective weapon for keeping North Macedonia in a state of permanent instability and isolation.

The commitment to the European Union is impossible and false without an uncompromising, unequivocal, and publicly articulated struggle to protect a multiethnic society and eradicate discrimination.

The illusion must be shattered. The politics of calculative silence on the one hand, and profiteering nationalism on the other, are leading the state into an abyss. There is no European future until the political elites muster the courage to face systemic segregation and until they understand that a multiethnic society is not a political catchphrase to flatter ambassadors, but the crucial condition for the survival of the state.

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