All options open

"The Ohrid framework agreement is disastrous for Macedonia, but we had to sign it because our country is under great military and economic pressure. That's why I call on all members of the Sobranja to support the initiative to change the Constitution in accordance with the framework agreement." With these words, two months ago, Prime Minister Georgijevski tried to convince mainly members of his VMRO-DPMNE party that, despite the avalanche of accusations they made against the Ohrid Agreement, they would still accept President Trajkovski's initiative on constitutional changes... and he succeeded.

After VMRO-DPMNE MPs spent several days in the Assembly of Macedonia saying the ugliest words about the Ohrid Agreement, they still voted "yes".

At that time, political analysts estimated that the show was over and that the rest of the parliamentary procedure on the passing of the amendments would proceed quickly... They were wrong. Thus, it has been shown once again that the political forecast in the Balkans has many more combinations than the sports forecast. The idea of ​​a referendum on constitutional changes, which was initiated by parliamentarians of the New Democracy and which at the very beginning looked like petty political marketing of this small party, was soon embraced by the MPs of VMRO-DPMNE. The referendum was opposed by deputies of the Albanian political parties PDP and DPA, as well as deputies of the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia. For several days, parliamentarians of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM accused each other of high treason, and then came a surprise for everyone. The former president of Macedonia, Kiro Gligorov, who promised to retire from politics two years ago, did not hold back and spoke publicly. Gligorov supported the idea of ​​a referendum and attacked the Ohrid Agreement, saying that no one from the side can prevent the Macedonian people from deciding for themselves whether or not the country will change its constitution. He said that erasing the Macedonian people from the Constitution after 60 years of statehood is an unacceptable mistake with unforeseeable consequences.

Such views of Gligorov practically coincided with the views of VMRO-DPMNE, a party that almost always had different views from those represented by Gligorov. On the other hand, Branko Crvenkovski and his SDSM, who have always followed Gligorov's policy, this time remained alone in their intention to implement the Ohrid Agreement from point to point, so this party also requested at the last moment that the wording remain in the preamble of the Constitution "Macedonian people".

The public debate on constitutional changes taking place in Macedonia these days shows that the Ohrid Agreement is not supported by Macedonian legal experts or the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and even less by the Macedonian Orthodox Church. If we add to this the fact that according to some polls, the Ohrid Agreement is unpopular with 85-90 percent of Macedonians, then it is clear that its implementation will not be as simple as it was thought.

It is interesting to note, however, that the ugliest words about the Agreement are being spoken only now, more than a month after its signing. Whether this delayed reaction of the official and unofficial Skopje has anything to do with the latest events in the United States can only be assumed. The only thing that is certain is that the American envoy to Macedonia, James Perdue, emphasized several times that the policy of the United States towards Macedonia will not change and that those who think that something drastic will change in the policy of the USA in the Balkans after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington are being deceived.

Perdju, who is particularly unpopular with Macedonians, has warned political leaders in Skopje several times to abandon the referendum because it is not part of the Ohrid Agreement. Relations between Perdju and Vlada are the worst since his arrival in the capital of Macedonia. A few days ago, the American envoy was literally thrown out of Prime Minister Georgijevski's office when he told the Macedonian prime minister that Albanian policewomen who are being trained at the Idrizovo Police Training Center were sexually harassed by Macedonian policemen. Another version about leaving the prime minister's office is that Georgievski told Perdue that the US is the biggest terrorist, after which the American diplomat angrily left the office.

The director of the Idrizovo Police Training Center stated a few days ago that during an unannounced visit to the Center, Perdju entered the kitchen and started throwing kitchen utensils, insulting the employees for not maintaining hygiene. Perdue denied this accusation, but did not comment on the incident in Prime Minister Georgievski's office. In Skopje, calls are increasingly being heard to declare the American diplomat a person immense grateful.

In the meantime, the West is intensifying the pressure on the Macedonian authorities to speed up the process of implementing the Ohrid Agreement. Maybe at this moment the EU and the USA don't even have a stick with which to force the Macedonian leaders to stick to the agreement, but they have the carrot that Macedonia needs so much - money. The Europeans have already announced the postponement of the donor conference, which is eagerly awaited by the official Skopje. During the last seven months, the Macedonian economy has suffered damage of about one billion German marks, about 280 million marks will be needed for the destroyed houses in the crisis areas, and hundreds of millions of marks is a big budget hole created as a result of large war expenditures and a reduced flow of funds into the state coffers. .

However, the Europeans showed their willingness to give the Macedonians some concessions.

"We could support the discussion on the preamble of the Macedonian Constitution, which would contain the historical aspirations of the Macedonian people for their own state, but only if the other parts of the Ohrid Agreement are voted in the parliament," said Doris Pak, president of the European Parliament's delegation for relations with Southeastern Europe.

As for the amnesty of extremists, which is also part of the framework agreement, there are increasingly frequent claims in the media that it will be announced by President Trajkovski with the blessing of the Government, instead of being voted on by the Assembly as foreseen by the Macedonian Constitution.

Eurocommissioner Javier Solana needed a man who would convince the Macedonian political elite of the necessity of amnesty. Solana invited the Deputy Prime Minister of the Serbian Government, Nebojša Čović, to Skopje to explain to the Macedonians all the positive aspects of the amnesty that has already been implemented in southern Serbia. The next few days will show how much Čović succeeded in persuasion.

In Macedonia, all options are still open. According to some analysts, Macedonian politicians are delaying the implementation of the framework agreement mainly because of the newly emerging global situation, which they hope will be in favor of the Macedonian side. It is said in journalistic circles that Prime Minister Ljupco Georgijevski took seriously Branko Crvenkovski's threat that his SDSM will leave the Government if the decision on the referendum is adopted, so Georgijevski is already working on forming a new parliamentary majority and of course a new government in which Albanians will not participate. New conflicts are not excluded either, especially if it is known that the "harvesters" did not harvest all the "weeds" from the terrorists, and the Macedonian side did not sit idly by as far as armaments are concerned.

Car bombs, arson, and similar events have become the decor of everyday life in cities with a mixed population. They remind that the fire of war has not yet been extinguished and that Macedonia can still be the most serious competitor to Afghanistan in the discipline called BREAKING NEWS.