Former PM of North Macedonia tells BIRN that EU’s failure to fulfill its promises to the country demotivated progressive voters in the last election – and aided the return to power of the political right.
The conference hall of the Athens Conservatoire on June 17 was packed as North Macedonia’s former Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, and his former Greek counterpart, Alexis Tsipras, addressed the importance of the 2018 Prespa “name” agreement between the two countries, the need to uphold it – and its political cost.
Organised by the two former premiers, the two-day International Conference on Peace and Sustainable Development marked the sixth anniversary of the landmark deal they signed.
In his speech, Zaev urged the new PM-designate of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, head of the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party, to stick to the name deal and avoid risking renewed complications with Greece.
In a subsequent interview on the sidelines, he told BIRN that the defeat of his pro-European Social Democrats in the country’s May general and presidential elections was in significant part due to demotivated progressive voters, tired of the EU’s unfulfilled promises of speedier accession. “The EU didn’t betray us,” he told BIRN, but “they didn’t fulfill all the obligations”.
Voters left feeling disappointed
Zaev’s Social Democrats came to power in mid-2017, promising to unlock the country’s euro-Atlantic path by solving the dispute with Greece over the country’s name, among other things.
By 2018, the country had a “name” deal with Greece under its belt and had also signed a friendship treaty with neighboring Bulgaria. It was a very positive moment for a country that had been waiting for almost three decades on NATO’s and EU’s doorsteps due to the Greek blockade over its name.
“After the Prespa [name] deal, people probably expected to get fast-track into NATO. Greece was one of the first countries that supported us,” Zaev rcalled. North Macedonia duly joined NATO. “But the EU [accession talks] didn’t happen, which was a disappointment,” he added.
In 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron, together with Denmark and the Netherlands, blocked both North Macedonia and Albania from moving forward with their EU membership bids, insisting the EU accession methodology needed reworking first.
Then, in 2020, Bulgaria imposed its own veto on the start of North Macedonia’s accession talks for its own reasons. Officially, Sofia claims it was due to slow implementation of the friendship treaty. In 2022 it lifted its veto, but for EU accession talks to begin in earnest, it wants North Macedonia to add Bulgarians to the country’s constitutive peoples in its constitution, which Zaev’s Social Democrats lacked support in parliament to achieve, and VMRO DPMNE now claims it does not want to do.
“There was a demotivation of progressive voters because of the EU. The Macron methodology happened, and Bulgaria happened … There is a mixture of reasons,” for the disappointment among progressive voters Zaev said.
“We are the EU’s strategic partner,” Zaev insisted, adding that Brussels needs to fulfill its promises and integrate the entire Western Balkans, while the candidate countries must respect the EU’s values.
“We are an island, surrounded by EU countries. The EU must take more courageous steps now,” he said.
Zaev led the government in Skopje for four years but resigned in 2021, following bad results for his party in local elections. His successor at the party’s helm and as PM, Dimitar Kovacevski, led the government after that.
In Athens, Zaev also conceded that, in hindsight, his party’s lackluster fight against corruption also helped its election defeat. He added that since he left the leadership there had been no visible success in fighting crime and corruption either.
EU absence leaves room for ‘eastern’ influences
In Athens, Zaev’s former Greek counterpart, Tsipras, underlined that if the Prespa agreement is not respected, not only the EU perspective of North Macedonia is at risk, but it’s very “existence”, as the country is threatened by “international isolation.”
He warned also that “third countries” like Turkey and Russia are seeking to intervene in the Balkans. That is why, he said, the name agreement was of “strategic” importance for the EU as well.
Reflecting on that, Zaev underlined that progressive forces are now struggling “to keep motivating the people for EU, NATO, for Western and EU values.
“The eastern part of the world wants to have an impact on North Macedonia; however, they don’t offer freedom, democracy, or Western and EU values,” he said.
He mentioned the defence cooperation between Greece and North Macedonia that was established by the Prespa Agreement by which the Greek Air Force in November 2021 assumed responsibility for safeguarding North Macedonia’s airspace under the NATO Air Policing mission umbrella, which continued until July 2023.
“We chose Greece, delivering trust, because it’s also our interest,” explained Zaev, adding that if North Macedonia’s EU path is blocked, it opens the way to expanded “eastern” – Russian or Turkish– influence on the country.
“We normally want to collaborate with everyone but we are dedicated to NATO and the EU,” he said.
Membership would also prevent young people from “leaving North Macedonia, which is an even bigger threat for me than the threat of eastern influence in North Macedonia”, he added.
When the Prespa name deal was signed under UN mediation and in the presence of top-ranking EU and US officials, it was praised as a role model for the peaceful resolution of disputes and conflict prevention.
Zaev believes that in today’s turbulent world, this is even more true. Using and sticking to deals that bring progress is a way to prevent future trouble.
For Zaev, these kinds of agreements, especially during times of war – in Gaza and Ukraine, amongst other places – are very important, especially to decision-makers who can use them to identify diplomatic solutions.
“Now we are losing children, women and civilians [in wars] everywhere – why? I don’t say it [war] is possible between North Macedonia [and Greece], but you never know. When a problem exists for 30 years, for the next ten years – who knows? A lot of radicals exist everywhere,” he concluded.
