DUI criticises government film for 35th anniversary, says Albanians are largely absent
DUI says the film was made only in Macedonian and omits key milestones such as the Ohrid Framework Agreement, NATO accession and the EU intergovernmental conference.
The Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) has publicly criticised the Government of North Macedonia over an official promotional film marking the country's 35th anniversary of independence, saying the video presents a solely ethnic Macedonian version of recent history.
According to DUI, the clip was produced only in Macedonian and features exclusively Macedonian artists; ethnic Albanians are, the party says, effectively absent from the story the film tells. The party also points to specific omissions and choices of protagonists.
Central figures and missing milestones
DUI singled out the presence in the film of Igor Durlovski as problematic, linking the name to the events of April 27, 2017, when a crowd violently entered the Assembly following the election of the first ethnic Albanian speaker. The party also noted several historical milestones are not represented: the Ohrid Framework Agreement, the country's accession to NATO, and the First Intergovernmental Conference with the European Union that opened the negotiation process.
In a statement, DUI said: "This spot, in fact, is the most accurate photograph of this Government: a Government of exclusion. Albanians may be on the list of ministers, but they are not in the story of the state. They exist as names and numbers as decoration, but not as presence, influence and a factor in decision-making."
The party added a further criticism in the statement: "Precisely the historic moments that transformed the state from an ethnic project into a common state, that anchored it in NATO and opened the path to the European Union have been erased. After two years of systematic dismantling of the mechanisms of the Ohrid Framework Agreement, there is now an attempt to dismantle its memory as well." DUI concluded that the anniversary should have been an occasion to show the state that was built together and the direction in which citizens want to take it: "The 35th anniversary of independence should have been a moment to show what kind of state we built together and where we want to take it."
The government launched a music-and-stage spectacle at Biljanini Izvori stadium in Ohrid to mark the anniversary and said the programme — titled "A Bright Day" — will tour eleven cities across North Macedonia. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski shared a video highlighting what his office called the most important moments and personalities of independent Macedonia.
Photo: press material from the event
