Former Prime Minister Ljupço Georgievski, one of the founders and the first leader of VMRO-DPMNE, used Republic Day on August 2 to criticize current political developments in North Macedonia and the direction taken by the party he founded in the early 1990s.
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In his published statement, Georgievski compared the principles that guided the founding of VMRO-DPMNE with the policies that, in his assessment, the party pursues today.
Looking back to 1990, he recalled that the creation of this political force was considered a “historic mission” aimed at securing Macedonia’s independence and establishing an autonomous political course.
Georgievski emphasized that his main objective at the time had been Macedonia’s independence and freeing it from the “clutches of Greater Serbian politics.”
The former prime minister’s criticism also focused on VMRO-DPMNE’s current position. He said the party had moved away from its original vision and its clear ideals for an independent state with a strong identity.
According to Georgievski, rather than protecting Macedonian identity, the party’s current policies are contributing to its degradation.
In his message marking August 2, he also addressed the two historic events commemorated on that date: the 1903 Ilinden Uprising and the 1944 session of ASNOM.
Although both events are historically significant, Georgievski said they are now often reduced to ceremonial symbols, without sufficient analysis of the ideas and messages they represented.
He recalled that the Ilinden Uprising began in 1903 in the Bitola region, with figures such as Boris Sarafov, Dame Gruev and Atanas Lozançev, before spreading to other regions.
Criticizing the interpretation of history, Georgievski wrote that “our ideological blindness” makes it difficult to recognize the uprising’s true greatness.
Regarding ASNOM and 1944, he said that major political ideas emerged at the time, but claimed that developments immediately afterward altered their course.
Summing up his position, Georgievski said that “both Ilindens today are merely form without substance,” expressing dissatisfaction with the way historical heritage is used in contemporary politics.
Ljupço Georgievski’s statement comes at a time when identity, history and the state’s strategic orientation remain among the most sensitive issues of debate on the Macedonian political scene.
