The double blow of the French announcement that they will likely veto the opening of EU accession talks for Macedonia, and the Bulgarian “framework position” was too much for many of the supporters of the Colored Revolution and the name change process.
Zaev himself, and his supporters, are still hopeful that France will be mollified next week and will not block the opening of the accession talks.
Still social media commentators were riled by the news. “What’s with that guy Macron? Doesn’t he know how many sewage covers we had to sheer to get this date?”, one Twitter used quipped. “Macron told you what to do with your ‘North'”, another added. Some social media supporters of the Zaev Government began listing French colonial crimes or examples of corruption in France, or would call out its Ambassador to Macedonia for the blow his country is preparing against Zaev’s name change project.
International supporters of Zaev in the media and the regional think-tanks were also highly critical of France.
In two weeks, the EU will need to decide on whether to open accession talks with Albania and “North” Macedonia. There should be no more excuses or delays. Both should begin the process, said British professor James Ker-Lindsay.
Bulgaria on the other hand will likely not block the opening of the accession talks, but is preparing a long list of requests which Macedonia must meet during the talks. These include continued promotion of the idea that Macedonians are in fact Bulgarians, and an end to the mentioning of Bulgaria siding with the Axis in World War Two, when it held most of the modern day Republic of Macedonia.
The response to these requests from Sofia was extensive among Zaev supporters, especially given that they come mainly from the left, which has invested heavily in the narrative of its fight against Bulgaria during the war. Social media commentators close to Zaev would widely share pictures of Bulgarian soldiers in World War Two, giving the Nazi salute or driving German tanks, with satirical comments, often prompting equally intense responses from Bulgarian commentators.
“The govt of Bulgaria has adopted a declaration stating they never invaded the territory of today’s ‘North’ Macedonia during WWII. Shameful and disgraceful. Obviously the current govt learned nothing from the idea of the European project”, a former Zaev adviser tweeted. Others shared pictures of marble monuments built following the end of the war, that describe Bulgarian crimes using the words “fascist occupiers”, a comment which Bulgaria wants to see banned.
Leave history to historians, don’t condition the future on the interpretation of the past and Bulgarian occupation of Macedonia is surely a chapter where Bulgaria might want to tread more carefully, another of Zaev’s advisers, Austrian professor Florian Bieber, wrote on Twitter.
This all prompted distinguished literature professor Jasna Koteska to declare the “project North” as a complete failure.
I wasn’t quiet during the VMRO rule (2008-2016) so I don’t have to be silent now. I wasn’t silent when SDSM built on top of that rule (2016 – ) so I don’t have to be silent now. “North” is an epic failure. Dimtirov and Zaev are incompetent and harmful. “North” is a horrible project, at least a century old. Whoever signed on to it, did not know what it is, thought it is a way to get cannabis plantations and factories for his family. Not the family of Gruevski and Mijalkov, but that of Zaev and his brother. This is a horror, Koteska wrote.
Koteska is the daughter of one of the most notable Communist era dissidents, poet Jovan Koteski who was arrested as an enemy of the Yugoslav state in 1985 and imprisoned for two years. As she says, she was a critic of VMRO-DPMNE and lent her credibility to the SDSM led Colored Revolution that paved the way for the Zaev rule and the imposed name change. But the name change and the indignities associated with it dislodged many of the early “colored revolutionaries” and turned them against Zaev. This mood change is mentioned in the petition signed by Bulgarian and Macedonian supporters of the name change, who warn that that the indignities imposed on Macedonia will prompt a counter-reaction.
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