Author: Xhelal Neziri
The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down most of the citizens in North Macedonia, raising a fear and uncertainty about what the upcoming days will bring. The same situation is present with citizens around the world – fear, anxiety and nihilism.
These days, which resemble apocalyptic films, mental health of political herds seem to be more affected than the lungs of patients with the corona virus. Strange ideological-religious cocktails of irremediable nihilists, united around political projects in Albanian geography, seem disoriented in public space: they do not care what the virus can bring in the upcoming days or months, nor what their crazy policy will bring in the long run. For these dangerous experimental cocktails, we will return in some future case, when the virus is past, and thus the effect of corona on the heads of the self-destructive mercenary will be milder.
Now let us return to the real problems of the citizens, which cannot be resolved either by ideology or by populist sophism. The coronavirus will pass, but what awaits the future government of North Macedonia, and not only is it really challenging: the global recession will start to affect the fragile economy of the country and the region, which can produce other security side effects.
They say that true friends are seen in difficult times. It is precisely at this time when we live in the anxiety of the unknown for the next days that NATO and the EU brought the big news. With the conclusion of the procedure at the US State Department, after all states had adopted the accession protocol, North Macedonia has finished the strategic orientation for which several generations of visionary politicians have worked since 1992 – becoming part of NATO as one of the most powerful military-political organization in the World. Days ago, heads of state and EU governments approved the conclusions of the General Affairs Council to give North Macedonia and Albania the long-awaited and deserved start of accession talks. The two Balkan countries, now NATO members and candidates that have entered the negotiation process to be part of the EU, will have access to solidarity funds and will be involved in a joint war against the invisible enemy.
This guarantee for the safety and well-being of the citizens, offered by the Euro-Atlantic structures, are the good news in these gloomy times in which world civilization is going through because of the virus originating from China. Full membership in NATO and entering one way street to the EU will make these countries part of the defense system against all the dangers of infectious impacts that hinder economic development and their overall progress.
Yes, North Macedonia is now the 30th NATO member along with Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia. North Macedonia and Albania are in the process of negotiating EU membership, just like Montenegro and Serbia. Despite the anxiety of the coronavirus, almost all citizens celebrated and enjoyed the news. It is really the realization of the dream of freedom, equality, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights, as fundamental and uncontested values on which NATO and the EU have been raised.