Hoti: In a time of “imperial nostalgia,” Europe does not want new nationalist tensions in the Balkans

Lecturer at the Mediterranean University in Tirana, Dritan Hoti, stated that the omission of national elements from the European Commission’s progress report on North Macedonia is a message indicating that, under current geopolitical circumstances and amid “imperial nostalgia,” Europe does not want new nationalist tensions in the Western Balkans.

“We are witnessing the return of nationalist and imperial nostalgia. Russia is striving to preserve an imperial logic based on its ethnic composition and its Orthodox element. These tendencies—aimed not only at re-establishing Russia as an ‘imperial pole’ but also at reimagining the global order based on historical, ethnic, and religious ties and Russia’s current interests—can, as in the past, have an impact on Southeastern Europe and the Balkans,” Hoti told Kosovo Online.

He explained that key political parties in the European Parliament, due to such “concerns,” decided to omit terminology related to North Macedonia’s national identity.

“They made that decision pragmatically, to prevent the resurgence of nationalist debates in this part of the Balkans and to avoid creating a sense of threat among EU member states,” Hoti emphasized.

He stressed that the creation of North Macedonia was a “geostrategic project” tied to the region.

“One of its goals was to halt ethnically motivated wars in what we call the central and southeastern Balkans. Under such conditions, a state was built—recognized under international law as Macedonia—which was a mixture, an ethnic amalgam of Slavic-speaking populations (whose language is not closely related to Serbian), and the state-forming element represented by the Albanian population,” Hoti elaborated.

He further noted that the European Parliament’s decision should also be seen as an attempt to “avoid debate” and potential conflict involving Bulgaria and Greece.

“Bulgaria has ongoing claims regarding the Macedonian identity, which it considers artificial and contrary to its historical interests. The Macedonian language is seen as a derivative of the language spoken in Bulgaria. Similarly, a conflict could involve Greece, which takes a historical and cultural stance. This seems to be a diplomatic decision aimed at avoiding traditional nationalist debates or clashes that could lead to veto threats from Greece or Bulgaria, thereby hindering North Macedonia’s EU integration and that of the Western Balkans,” Hoti said.

Asked whether this could also jeopardize the national identities of other Western Balkan countries, Hoti emphasized that the EU is built on a “combination of elements,” but that every country has the right to preserve its national or cultural identity.

“The European Union was established as a supranational organization of European states based on a combination of elements. Yet, member states have the right to preserve what is considered their national and cultural identity, which has developed over centuries—from the Middle Ages to the creation of the EU. The Macedonian identity, especially since it pertains to a small and relatively young country, has become a point of contention due to Skopje’s attempts to present it with a certain grandeur, opposed by Sofia and Athens. This has created a persistent issue,” Hoti noted.

Therefore, he believes the case of North Macedonia should not be generalized or compared to that of other countries, including Kosovo.

“It is a specific case rooted in the very emergence of North Macedonia as a state in Southeastern Europe. It does not point to the artificiality of the state itself, but rather highlights it as a particular case—a small country in the region. We cannot draw parallels with the identities of historical European states or other Balkan countries that formed national states during the 19th century—Albania in 1912, for instance. We also have the case of Kosovo, where the Albanian identity of the region’s newest state cannot be questioned, nor can there be tendencies toward disagreement or backlash in that regard,” Hoti concluded.