In tonight’s ‘Shock’, analyst Andi Bushati said that Open Balkan is faced with tough times ahead, especially after North Macedonia’s PM, Zoran Zaev, stepped down as the country’s PM.
According to Bushati, the meeting between Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic and Albanian PM, Edi Rama in Belgrade, speaks volumes of their primary goal to prove to everyone that they are ‘firm decision-making leaders’.
“It is physically impossible to have a country led by Rama and a country led by Vucic, open up their borders to one another. They can fly their flags however much they want. If you’re surrounded by Bosnia, Kosovo and North Macedonia, there is no Open Balkans. The Rama-Vucic meeting will have to address the fact that Open Balkan has never been under so much threat,” – said Bushati.
In addition, analyst Baton Haxhiu argued that the recent rise in nationalism in North Macedonia, coupled with the growing popularity of VMRO-DPMNE, are threatening the Open Balkan initiative the most.
According to Haxhiu, after Zaev’s resignation, more thought should have been put into actually holding the Rama-Vucic meeting or not.
“If North Macedonia gets out of Open Balkan, the only borders that remain open are those between Albania and Serbia. What is happening in Bosnia and N. Macedonia is making things more difficult for Open Balkan. This is being dictated by the harsh tones of nationalism currently present in North Macedonia and if República Srpska opts out, Open Balkans will die off because the initial idea was based on open borders,” – said Haxhiu.
According to Bushati, the only worry in Rama’s and Vucic’s minds is to act like “firm decisionmakers and wave their flags,” to show power over their own territory and “obsess over their own protagonism”.
“It’s not like they have any long-term plans that would benefit their nations. They only want to show that they are the ones that hold the flag,” – said Bushati.
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