VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski told the opposition supporters during the rallies in Makedonski Brod and Kicevo yesterday that the party will work to re-assert the Macedonian national identity, after the mauling it suffered with the renaming process.

We need to love our country. We were born here, we founded our families here, and we will continue to live here, likely ending our lives here. That will be our fight for the Macedonianism, Mickoski said.

The term is often used by neighboring countries in a derogatory way, trying to present the creation of Macedonian national consciousness – Macedonianism – as something artificial. VMRO is endorsing the positive meaning of the term, at a time when the Macedonian nation is pressured to accept a different reading of history, promoted by neighboring countries, to give up on national heroes and its symbols and go through a broad loss of sovereignty.