The campaign of those opposing the Agreement with Greece and Macedonia’s EU integration is delivering its result. One must admit, it’s going quite well for them. They have a strong and well-paid arsenal of dirty propaganda weapons with immense amount of hatred. With that they are sowing fear and insecurity, and are also trying to prepare the terrain for violence and destabilization. With well-developed systems for subtle and less subtle manipulations, they are penetrating into all communities and groups.
They are trying their best to also persuade people whose views are focused on EU. This is going easy for them with messages like “Well, now they’ve really overdone it”, or “This is not all right, it really is a manipulative question”…This adds on to the “eternal” narrative that “they are all the same”, which is equivalent to “It’s Hitler’s fault, but it’s also the Jews’ fault”. The series of smaller and bigger scandals that the government itself has caused, is only helping them, because all the dices are mixed, and the Referendum is brought in connection with the ethnic issues, corruption, good (bad) governance…Which is totally wrong, if one thinks about it just a little bit more.
The public has the right to know! It has the right to know who is meddling in our country. It has the right to know that one of the biggest political parties, their Russophile right-left pendants and the church (!) are part of the operation whose architects are a school of KGB and are working for the dictator from Kremlin. The public has the right to know what the institutions are also doing to ensure that the processes are carried out without destructive influences and obstructions. The public has the right to know how the church, separated from the state according to the Constitution, is carrying out a black campaign. There is much to be investigated and analyzed on how the sophisticated anti-Western machinery is grinding all the ethnic communities in the country with its gearwheels. Seemingly antagonized, the ethnic communities and part of their leaders and public opinion makers, intentionally or unintentionally, are working for the same dark goal.
The citizens have the right to decide for their own fate, and the fate of the country in which they live in, free from fear, pressures, fake news and extremism. The state has the obligation to provide conditions for everyone equally, regardless of affiliation, to fulfill their fundamental right to vote. Nothing more.
“Are you in favor of a sovereign and autonomous Macedonia, with the right to join a future alliance of sovereign states of Yugoslavia?”. That was the referendum question with which Macedonia stepped into its independence on September 8, 1991. “Are you in favor of EU and NATO membership by accepting the Agreement between Republic of Macedonia and Republic of Greece?” is the second historic question that the citizens will be answering on September 30, 2018. No one disputed the meaning of the Referendum on Macedonia’s independence back then, regardless of whether the question was manipulative or not. The vast majority wanted to live in an independent state. And they decided.
The question at the forthcoming referendum is even clearer that the one in 1991. It concerns the aspiration of the vast majority, regardless of whether it is the parties or politically neutral citizens. Almost all the parties in Macedonia, without hesitation and each time, have been for EU and NATO. Looking back, all of them, without any exception, have promised a referendum on that issue. What do they want to achieve now? It has already become clear. And regardless of the public appearances and the support that VMRO-DPMNE will give at the last moment, the damage is enormous, and has the chance of becoming catastrophic.
In 1991, and even more now, it should have been and should be understood that it’s not about the parties, politicians or other structures of power, but rather about the country in which we all live in together, even if we are divided, quarreled, impoverished, confused, manipulated…
It’s about Macedonia, and not about the parties, not about the officials, not about the politicians and politicos.
Ultimately, even the nationalists have more than enough reasons to wish the Referendum success, because it concerns the welfare of the state that they claim are defending from a who knows what force or community. It’s unknown how even the nationalists do not understand that this means leaving the FYROM name behind, and not to mention the benefits of the integration processes. Unless this is a political battle for power for them. But, this time they are playing with the fate of the country in which, after failing to get out of the mud, it won’t be important anymore who’s in power.
Translated by: Natasha Cvetkovska
