Health workers, athletes, firefighters, policemen and soldiers, miners, farmers, Red Cross volunteers, scouts, as well as national ensembles and cultural and artistic associations today will parade in the center of the capital on the occasion of 30 years of independence.
The central celebration will be outdoors in front of the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia starting at 5.30 pm, and will start with the performance of Zivojin Glisic’s “Symphony for Philharmonic”, which will be followed by a parade.
According to the protocol, the official part will start at 6.30 pm with the intonation of the anthem of North Macedonia by the Military Orchestra, followed by speeches of the state leadership. Addresses will be made by State President Stevo Pendarovski, President of Parliament Talat Xhaferi and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.
Following the address of the Prime Minister, the musical part begins at 7.30 pm with the performance of song specially arranged for this occasion and a musical part with well-known solo performers, who together with the National Philharmonic will perform anthological entertaining songs.
Apart from the official guests and the media, according to the protocol and current situation with the pandemic, attendance is anticipated of about 1000 accredited citizens who have submitted a vaccine certificate or certificate of recovery from Covid-19.
Due to the celebration on the occasion of the holiday, the following streets will be closed for traffic starting from 11.00 am: Blvd “Koco Racin” in the direction from the intersection with Blvd. “Kuzman Josifovski Pitu” to the St. “Kiril and Metodij”, the St. “11 October” in the direction from St. “Krusevska Republika” to St. “Dimitrie Cupovski”, St. “Filip Vtori” in the direction from Blvd. “Goce Delcev” to St. “11 October”, Quay “13 November” in the direction from St. “Filip Vtori” to Blvd. “Kocho Racin”.
President Stevo Pendarovski today on the occasion of Independence Day, will award the Order 8-September to Stojan Andonov, first President of the first multiparty Assembly, as well the MPs in the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia in the term 1990 to 1994.
President Pendarovski, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, Deputy Prime Ministers Artan Grubi, Ljupco Nikolovski and Fatmir Bytyqi, as well as Minister of Education and Science Mila Carovska will lay flowers at the eternal resting places of former Presidents Kiro Gligorov and Boris Trajkovski at the Butel City Cemetery in Skopje.
A parliamentary delegation led by Vice-Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia Goran Misovski, and composed of MPs Snezana Kaleska-Vancheva and Velika Stojkova-Serafimovska will also lay flowers at the eternal resting places of Gligorov and Trajkovski.
Ahead of the celebration, last night the artillery battalion of the Army carried out an honorary artillery fire with 10 platoons.
Three decades ago on this day, over 95 percent of the citizens at a referendum voted for an independent and sovereign state.
Previously, on January 25, 1991, the Declaration of Independence was passed by the first multiparty Macedonian Assembly, and two days later the MPs elected Kiro Gligorov as first President of independent and sovereign Republic of Macedonia.
Important steps for establishing the statehood were the adoption of the new Constitution on November 17, 1991, the monetary independence, the introduction of the Denar on April 26, 1992, and establishing its own armed forces.
The international legal subjectivity of the state was definitely confirmed on April 8, 1993, when with and acclamation in the United Nations General Assembly, it was admitted as the 181st full-fledged member in the world organization. Due to the opposition and pressure from Greece, which did not accept the constitutional name of the Republic of Macedonia, UN membership was under the reference Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Throughout the 30 years of independent existence, the state has gone through a series of problems and difficulties. The triple digit inflation at the beginning of the 90s, the Greek embargo, the Kosovo refugee crisis and the 2001 conflict were real challenges and threats for the young Macedonian state that slowed its pace.
The name dispute with Greece, after many years of talks under the auspices of the United Nations, was finally resolved on June 17, 2018 in Prespa with the signing of an agreement between the two states. This opened the country’s NATO and EU path.
On March 27, 2020, North Macedonia became the 30th member of NATO. Although being a candidate country for 16 years, and in 2009 receiving its first recommendation for start of the accession negotiations with the EU, the European integration that was blocked for a long time by Greece, is now blocked by Bulgaria. Sofia, despite the signed bilateral Agreement on Friendship and Good Neighbourliness in August 2017, for now does not agree with the other 26 EU member states for negotiations to start with Skopje.
North Macedonia, despite the obstacles, as all political actors in the country claim, remains on the European path, expects a solution soon to the misunderstandings and fulfilment of the strategic goals – EU membership, strengthening democracy and economic development.
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
