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Macedonia has dreamed that it is Serbia

Maqedonia ka parë ëndrrër se është Serbi

La Macedonia ha sognato di essere la Serbia

Original newspaper scan

Original newspaper scan

They have stressed that at that time. This party gave the inspiration for them to move closer to the “European Union” of countries. When the Macedonians began their movement for independence from Yugoslavia, the main parties used as a model their own efforts to leave their federation and set a clear goal. Just as in the imposed division of the nine republics of the former Yugoslavia, and even now as a state declared independent under their Constitution, the Macedonians have no way to break away from Serbia’s past, even though they themselves have withdrawn from all the narratives of Macedonia. To understand this whole story better, it concerns the governance of the Macedonian country that is seeking a Serbian model. So, it is now clear that the Macedonians have remained politically separated from Serbia, but not from its past legacy. In this way, in many political campaigns and public speeches, the Macedonian elite has repeatedly shown a strong closeness to the state and nationalist concepts that once governed Belgrade. Earlier, in a piece on this topic, it was emphasized that the government in Skopje, although independent, continues to keep alive political and institutional models resembling those of Serbia. Perhaps most striking is that, instead of undertaking deep and clear reforms to break with the past, Macedonia has retained much of the way of thinking and administration that brings it closer to Serbia. Could there by chance be some kind of ambition to be seen as a continuation of the Serbian state tradition, with only the name and form of the state changed? The article suggests that this is one of the main dilemmas of the Macedonian transition. To better understand the political language as well, it is important to keep in mind that in the Balkans, national identity and state models are often built in relation to neighbors, not necessarily by fully separating from them. Thus, Macedonia too, despite formal independence, has remained tied to many old Yugoslav and Serbian practices.