Skopje, 8 April 2024 (MIA) - The Ohrid Framework Agreement has accomplished its task, if we want to move forward, we must face that and finally free ourselves from the fear of talking about the Framework Agreement and 2001, Levica’s presidential candidate, Professor Biljana Vankovska says in an interview with MIA.

The first thing Vankovska says she would do as president is annul the Treaty with Bulgaria and launch a constitutional debate and procedure over an entirely new Constitution.

Her main goal, Vankovska says, is to show how different she is from the other candidates and deconstruct the concept of “everyone’s the same”. She believes her main trump card and surprise factor at the elections are the people who refuse to publicly state their political preference, but who, she says, see themselves in the statements of her political option.

Regarding Levica, despite not being a member of the party, Vankovska says a synergy and natural harmony exists between them which, she says, will be evident in the election program and campaign events.

“Biljana Vankovska was born a leftist, practically speaking in terms of my social, working-class origin. I was raised in a socialist system, obviously my surroundings were like that too, I lived in a working-class neighborhood which was built after the earthquake where the workers of ‘Nova Makedonija’ received prefabricated houses and that’s where I’ve remained. So, I am surrounded everywhere by that which, perhaps with a bit of outdated vocabulary, I would describe as working-class. So, Levica and I found each other without looking very hard, and it’s true that I was one of the signatories during Levica’s founding because I was happy that on the political scene, in terms of the array of options that should exist for the citizens, I thought that was a good act, a nice change, because the tendency was, and still is unfortunately, for everyone to congregate in the center and then call themselves center-left, center-right. So, yes – I think we will show through the campaign as well, that I stand for leftist policies,” Vankovska says.

During the entire process, Vankovska says she is moving step by step and her main goal is to show how different of an option they are and to deconstruct the concept of “everyone’s the same”.

“In terms of the campaign, my main goal is to show how different we are as opposed to everything else that exists on the political scene. I already said that you can’t find right, left, center in Macedonia. Everything is a kind of a blend, a mix, I think there’s not even any ideology. But we do have an ideology. Some would call them ideals, some would say only fools die for ideals, but we would go as far as to die in that battle if that’s what it takes. However, the idea is to deconstruct that discourse and concept for society as part of which they constantly tell us there is no alternative for this, no alternative for that, ultimately leading to pacified citizens who say ‘everyone is the same, they all repeat the same thing in one way or another, they’ve become boring, we no longer believe them’. They promise that milk and honey will flow, and that’s not the case, or that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow we will join the European Union or NATO and that was supposed to bring us prosperity. I don’t know how humble this is, but I define myself as someone who tells the truth. So, regardless of the cost and the public receptions, I think the public deserves to hear things as they are, without rose-tinted glasses, so at this stage that’s my task here. If I can reach out to the voters by saying the truth, by speaking about things directly as they are, not avoiding certain things as my opponents do, I think this is the right way, to be authentic, to speak with arguments and the citizens recognize that,” Vankovska clarifies.

Vankovska says she would agree to participate in a debate wherever she is invited, noting that her strong suit is her ability to express herself verbally and say things as they are.

“It isn’t fair for someone to write you off from the very beginning, while at the same time avoiding debate. So, I would love to debate on an equal footing because we all collected signatures equally, besides my colleague, Siljanovska, who submitted her candidacy with 30 signatures from the MPs. However, formally and legally we are all equal. So, I should have equal opportunity to debate with president Pendarovski, minister Bujar Osmani, with the mayors, etc. I am the only candidate who is coming from an academic environment, without any political baggage, without any political post behind me and I think this would be interesting for our voters to see,” Vankovska states.

Vankovska says her campaign will be humble, “without spectacular rallies, fireworks, bus caravans”. “Everything the people have seen so far, we won’t have,” Vankovska says, nonetheless stressing she will be visible and recognizable – “in all possible ways, through handing out leaflets, meetings with the citizens, special newspapers, few billboards...”

Asked who she expects to receive her support from at the elections, Vankovska says that during the campaign she is trying to reach out to people on a social and class basis. She sees people who don’t want to publicly state their political preference as the surprise factor at the elections.

“I will be completely honest, this is that trump card that we are counting on, and I think we will cause a lot of surprises. I have people coming up to me saying ‘I intentionally don’t like your or Levica's posts on social media, I intentionally avoid exposing myself, but I support you’. This is the case because they are afraid, have businesses, jobs, sometimes even within institutions. I’d say the specter of leftism is hovering over Macedonia, so many of those people who are refusing to publicly state their political preference will recognize themselves in what we are saying, and I think they will vote for me and Levica, so this is that surprise factor,” Vankovska says.

According to Vankovska, the Ohrid Framework Agreement has accomplished its task, “if we want to move forward”, she says, “we need to face that” and launch a debate instead of seeing it as a taboo topic and something that mustn’t be discussed.

“Vankovska is in favor of a normal democracy. Let’s begin with the Ohrid Framework Agreement. It accomplished its task at a very dramatic time, it was imposed from abroad as an alleged peace agreement partially implemented in the Constitution. Twenty years later, the Framework Agreement showed that we are slowly plunging into a kind of a ‘Lebanonization’, a constitutionally founded ethnic segregation that is reaching absurd levels. We no longer have a single institution that can be constituted without the ethnic factor. In civil states, in real democracies where the citizens rule, this isn’t a natural thing. So, my point is that the Ohrid Framework Agreement has accomplished its historic function, and if we want to move forward, we need to face that or head towards a binational federal or federalized state, alternatively we can go back and be like the normal countries,” Vankovska says.

According to Vankovska, the situation in the country has been reduced to a policy of blackmail in which the Macedonian people and the Macedonians are being blackmailed from all sides – by the neighboring states, the EU and the United States from abroad, and the Albanians domestically. “So,” she says, “the frustration is understandable”.

Asked about her concrete proposals and the first thing she would do if elected, Vankovska says she would first scrap the Treaty with Bulgaria, and then launch a debate over an entirely new Constitution.

“The first thing I would do is scrap the Treaty with Bulgaria. It is the simplest one from a formal and legal standpoint, there are no dramatic situations, and it doesn’t even encroach into the French proposal. Which is the next task of society, not only of the president, but everyone, I hope the remaining part of the political structure will wake up to the fact that this is non-sensical. Additionally, the European Union is moving in a really bad direction, it shot itself in the foot with its policy on Ukraine, with the militarization, the social protests it has internally – this is no longer the Union they promised us. So, we must focus on our national interests and raise our national dignity. In fact, the slogan I am using in my campaign is ‘let’s restore people’s dignity’. They trampled on us and we are already starting to doubt ourselves and whether we can change anything,” Vankovska says.

According to Vankovska, we cannot live with fear, she believes it is necessary to say things as they are, to avoid being held hostage by our own fears.

“The president can launch a constitutional debate and procedure for the change of the entire Constitution, instead of ‘let’s mend something here, stick or add the Bulgarians or someone else there’. We need a completely new Constitution. I am in favor of one such radical debate. Of course, the president can’t impose a constitution. If I could, I’d say, here, this is the kind of Constitution I want. But I am not the one being asked. There is a society, a debate, experts, interested groups and I think this would be an opportunity, even if it fails. Once and for all we must abandon the fear of discussing the Ohrid Framework Agreement or 2001, the Hague atrocities...,” Vankovska says.

Asked if she expects other candidates to congratulate her on a potential victory, or if she would congratulate her opponents, Vankovska says if there is at least minimal political etiquette, all candidates should congratulate each other for running, even if they don’t win.

Vankovska vows to try to offer an interesting and meaningful campaign and warns that, according to her assessment, the coming five-year term will occur during dramatic global shifts in a multipolar world.

Aleksandar Atanasov

Photo: MIA

Video: Andrej Brankovikj and Vladimir Rabasovikj