SDSM demands accountability after wrong flag appears in government celebration video

The Social Democratic Union (SDSM) has demanded answers from the Government after a promotional video for the country's 35th independence anniversary showed an incorrect version of the national flag, calling the mistake a public humiliation of state symbols.

At a press conference Andrej Zhernovski, SDSM secretary for international cooperation, said the error came on the same day the flag and anthem were adopted in 1992 and called the official reaction — that the image was an "art installation" — "tragicomic". He accused the ruling parties of treating the flag as an aesthetic object rather than a sacred national symbol.

"For Mickoski and for the Government, the national flag is clearly not a sacred state symbol but an 'art installation'. When they make a mistake, SDSM is again to blame, the people are to blame. When they humiliate the state and a state symbol, again the citizens and the dregs are blamed. When they have no results, someone else is again to blame," Zhernovski said.

SDSM reminded that Article 30 of the Law on the Use of the Coat of Arms, the Flag and the Anthem provides for misdemeanor sanctions if the organizer of a public event displays the wrong flag. The party demanded that the Government publish which company was contracted for the visual performance, how much the celebration cost and who will be held responsible for the mistake.

Opposition and ethnic Albanian party register criticism

The opposition party also criticized the video for omitting what SDSM described as key state achievements — joining the United Nations, NATO membership and obtaining EU candidate status — and accused the authorities of attempting a revision of history that excludes VMRO from those successes. Zhernovski said: "Where would Macedonia be today, where would our state be today, if VMRO had been in power all the time? We would not have a state. Let's recall that it was precisely they who trampled the Macedonian flag at Mechkin Kamen."

The Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) also reacted, saying the clip presents a solely Macedonian version of history. According to DUI, the video was produced only in Macedonian language and features exclusively Macedonian artists, while ethnic Albanians are practically absent. DUI additionally noted that the Ohrid Framework Agreement, NATO accession and even the first intergovernmental conference with the European Union and the opening of negotiations are not represented in the spot.

Both parties are calling for transparency about the production of the promotional material and for officials to answer who will assume responsibility for the symbolic error ahead of the official anniversary events.

Photo: СДСМ