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"I look forward to any future discussion with you on the field, because that is my plan, to be constantly with you and to discuss and agree on a common future for our country...Together we will discover a new era of vision, action and results. Today Macedonia has proven to everyone that it believes in itself, knows what it does and can fight for itself and its future and will not accept anyone’s games! I believe in you and I believe in Macedonia! I know that you believe too! ", pointed out with a touching tone the resigning Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, announcing the deposit of his conditioned resignation.
By Sinisa Stankovic
Even though his pathetic performance can be explained by the (non) acceptance of the fact that he really has to fulfill his promises and the document he personally signed, and after almost a decade, to say goodbye to the position which meant unlimited power, followed by a total absence of accountability and responsibility, his transparent attempt to spin the conditioning of his resignation, which according to Gruevski would take effect 100 days prior to the scheduled early elections, is just another attempt by the deflated VMRO-DPMNE to encourage its members.
Emphasizing the condition for his resignation is just a desperate attempt to engineer the pressure of the international community and the Commissioner Johannes Hahn who is present today in Skopje, towards the opposition and its leader Zoran Zaev - to accept precisely April 24th as the date for the early elections. Although the opposition, as well as eminent experts and the representatives of the civil society (and according to the findings of CIVIL - Center for Freedom from its fieldwork across the country) are stressing that Macedonia cannot afford to organize another elections without ensuring that the maximum conditions for them to be fair, free and democratic have been met.
In fact, even the "address to the nation" that was aired live was more of a motivational speech intended for the members of the ruling party and its coalition partners, after all given and unfulfilled promises, rather than a call for unity of the nation in a country that has been "stuck in a political crisis for too long".
How else to understand the allegations towards the critics of the government, in fact, towards everyone that has a different opinion (which is one of the main features of the regime of the Family) that they lead a "dirty campaign against Macedonia" and that demands for postponement of the elections until minimal conditions are met were just "clear trap to hold the country hostage, maintain the crisis, conflict and dispute over the right of the people to choose those that they think should lead the country."
Also, there is little benefit from the statements that VMRO-DPMNE has made many compromises, and that it was even criticized for being too compromising and too soft, but that they were doing it "consciously and for the good of the state". Especially not with the distasteful attempt to transfer responsibility to the people: "My party and I personally stick to this agreement because we stand by you, rely on you, believe in you. The right to choose who will lead this country is yours and yours only. You, the people of Macedonia are our main support and I'm doing this for you, because I believe in you and in your decision and assessment. You know it all and you understand everything. Nobody can underestimate you. You will express your opinion at the upcoming elections clearly and precisely and it will be loud and convincing".
The Macedonian citizens are absolutely fed up with "political crisis and disturbing developments, espionage, security and economic challenges" and the years of "bickering, divisions, anger, agony, attempts to collapse Macedonia on an economic, political and even security level ". But when even after all the given words that he would not step down, Gruevski, however, resigned, how could anyone trust him whether his intentions are " for our country to move forward and continue to grow strongly", and that after the last ten years that the grasshoppers ate, on the next elections he would not be returning to the old political bickering? Or that, after hundreds of millions of euros mercilessly squandered on projects with village fair aesthetics, like the caricature-alike project "Skopje 2014", this time he would have "big plans and serious platforms for the state economy, growth and development, to safeguard the way for the opening of new jobs and investments in all areas "?
Even the pile of promised and constantly repeated phrases, were unable to mask the uncertainty in the performance of the departing prime-minister, who’s pale appearance and frayed populism ("I believe in you and I believe in Macedonia! I know that you believe in it too! We continue together, shoulder to shoulder, every day until the Election Day, when we will stand firmly again and with a proudly lifted head we will say – We did it - Macedonia has succeeded, and we are a part of that great victory! ") maybe, in the short run, this might stabilize the shaken confidence of the party apparatchiks and delay the shifting among the growing group of "sunflowers ". But the shallow and meaningless statements simply no longer work. And it was about time...
The only thing I fully agree on with Gruevski, and wish to happen from the bottom of my heart after the elections, is "a new wind in the back when all this agony which was created, will be behind us", so that Macedonia would prove that it is strong and resistant, and that "no one should underestimate our people, who know what they want and know who they support and why”.
