Mickoski to Bulgaria: "We Will Enter Europe with Our Heads Held High" - So What's the Plan If Sofia and Brussels Don't Budge?

"A true European future must be a future we enter with our heads held high, not with a bent and humiliated spine." That's the line Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski sent to Sofia from the Memorial Ossuary in Kumanovo, at the ceremony marking 85 years since 11 October. A strong sentence - and we're still waiting to see what comes after it.

The message to the eastern neighbour was carefully put together. "We may have different interpretations of the past. For the future, we must share responsibility," Mickoski said. "Our language is not an obstacle to a European future. It is part of Europe's cultural wealth. Our identity is not a problem to be solved, but a dignity to be respected." Europe, he said, isn't being asked to choose between Macedonia and Bulgaria, but to apply European principles equally to everyone.

Dignity - and a 1,000-euro salary

It's hard to disagree. Language and identity aren't up for haggling, and no government should put them on the table. But Brussels is saying something different for now: the European Commission still ties the next phase of the accession process to the obligations in the negotiating framework and to the constitutional amendments. Holding your head high is a stance. The question is what the plan is when the other side won't budge and Brussels won't change the formula.

Alongside Bulgaria, the speech also had a number. The government's goal is for the average net salary to approach 1,000 euros by the end of its term - a little over 60,000 denars. According to the latest data, in July 2026 it stood at 48,499 denars, up 7.1 percent in nominal terms on last year. Hitting the target needs roughly another quarter of growth. Ambitious - and measurable, so it can be checked.

A holiday for unity, a speech against the opposition

Mickoski called for national unity, for overcoming divisions and for "great national goals", because Macedonia "has settled for mediocrity for too long". In the same speech, the opposition got its labels: "They have neither a vision nor a programme", and the only thing they were "world champions" at was signing "every blank sheet of paper" put in front of them. He also spoke about those who "sell themselves" to people with bad intentions towards the state.

A call for unity and insults for the opponent in the same speech - and on the anniversary of the uprising against the occupier, no less. The partisans of 1941 had no guarantee they would win, the prime minister himself reminded the audience. Their heirs are in a far more comfortable position - which is exactly why more than rhetoric is expected of them.

If holding our heads high is a strategy and not a slogan, when will we see what it actually contains - in Brussels, in Sofia, or at least in Parliament?