DUI: Government’s 35th-anniversary video sidelines Albanians and erases key historical milestones

The Government released a promotional video to mark the 35th anniversary of the country’s independence. The opposition party DUI criticised the clip, saying it presents a single ethnic narrative and excludes the Albanian community from the state’s recent history.

DUI pointed out that the video is entirely in Macedonian and that the featured artists are Macedonians. The party also noted that one of the central faces in the film is Igor Durlovski, a name directly tied to the events of 27 April 2017, when a crowd forcefully entered the Assembly after the election of the first Albanian speaker of the parliament.

Omissions, says DUI

Beyond questions of language and representation, DUI highlighted what it described as deliberate historical omissions. The party said the film does not mention the Ohrid Framework Agreement — the document that ended the 2001 conflict and established the multiethnic character of the state. NATO membership, another major strategic milestone, is also absent. Likewise omitted, DUI added, are the first intergovernmental conference with the European Union and the opening of the accession negotiation process.

According to DUI, those are precisely the moments that transformed the country "from an ethnic project into a shared state", anchored it in NATO and opened the path to the European Union.

DUI summarised its view in sharp language: "This spot, in fact, is the most accurate photograph of this Government: a Government of exclusion. Albanians may appear on the list of ministers, but they are not in the story of the country. They exist as names and numbers, as decoration, but not as presence, influence and a factor in decision-making," the party said.

Photo: ДУИ