Prime Minister Zoran Zaev political legitimacy lives and dies by the approval of European leaders, and his SDSM party has often portrayed itself as the favored pick of the international community. But days have gone by since Zaev’s re-election as leader of the SDSM party and no congratulations have come.
The one exception has been Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, who talked to Zaev on the phone and they issued a joint press release, but in this case, it was mostly to remind Zaev that he needs to deliver on the Bulgarian demands for major national identity and history concessions.
Other European leaders, who crowded the Skopje airport in 2018 when they tried (and failed) to persuade Macedonians to support Zaev’s Prespa Treaty with Greece and the name and identity change, have long ago abandoned Zaev. His welcomes almost no European leaders in Skopje and has very few international trips since the name change has been done and Macedonia was admitted to NATO. And as corruption scandals have multiplied, now even a curtesy message of congratulations seems too much for Zaev’s former international “partners”.
Comments are closed for this post.