In his annual address before the Macedonian Parliament, President Stevo Pendarovski lamented how the Colored Revolution movement was betrayed by its leaders. Speaking before the outgoing Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who is the leading recipient of presidential pardons in Macedonia, his political ally Pendarovski spoke how the citizens expected to see politicians arrested for corruption and these expectations were betrayed.
The broad civic movement of resistance which was the generator of democratic change marched under the logo “no justice no peace”. But unfortunately, three and a half years after our only post-Communist democratic revolution, few believe that we have justice. Dozens of cases are now dated and were not resolved, the creator of the regime fled both justice and the country and no institution has explained how was that even possible. On top of it all, the Racket scandal has the leader of the institution that was created with the only goal to fight crime is herself charged with serious crimes. This bodes poorly for the ability of our judiciary to resist foreign pressures. In three decades of our independence, no high ranking politician or businessman who became wealthy overnight was sent behind bars, although many should have, Pendarovski said, ironically speaking with Zaev sitting in the front row. Also present was SDSM Deputy Speaker Frosina Remenski who is currently charged with racketeering.
Pendarovski insisted that under his SDSM party Macedonia achieved a lot, with the expected NATO membership, but acknowledged that the general mood in the public is not good.
Regarding the thorny issue of bilingualism and the law that aims to turn Macedonia into a fully bilingual country with the Albanian language used officially alongside the Macedonian, Pendarovski came in support of this process.
The law on languages has no potential to destabilize the country, Pendarovski said, insisting that “no country ever broke up because of giving too many linguistic rights to its citizens”.
Pendarovski agreed that the Venice Commission found the law deeply flawed, but said that it can be rectified using the proposals preferred by the Albanian parties – throwing more public resources at the issue, and hiring many new translators who would make sure that the Albanian language is used in official correspondence even in parts of the country with few Albanians.
Pendarovski agreed that Macedonia is a deeply divided society both along ethnic lines and within the Macedonian nation. He announced he will hold meetings between football groups, which were recently involved in nationalist outbursts, and fighters from the 2001 civil war, in an attempt to scare the young people straight.
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