8/12/2019 Celebration of Skopjes heritage proves costly and divisive - Financial times

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statuary in central Skopje

23, 2013 4:41 pm

elebration of Skopjes heritageroves costly and divisiveKerin Hope in Skopje

A shaggy-haired Alexander the Great on horseback raises his

sword high above Skopjes main square. Two 19th-century

revolutionaries pose beside an Ottoman-era stone bridge. A ro

of neo-baroque buildings in glittering marble lines the opposite

bank of the fast-flowing Vardar river.

But these landmarks are not the monuments of past centuries

but part of Skopje 2014, a four-year old project encompassinhuge bronze statues, new government offices and museums,

ntains and colouredlights.

y have transformed the Macedonian capitals drab centre into a tourist attraction by highlighting th

ntrys rich but little-known heritage, according to Nikola Gruevski, the prime minister.

e are a very young country, only 23 years old, and when we became independent from Yugoslavia w

e a nation with its own history but no monuments or statues, Mr Gruev ski, whose idea it was, told

Financial Times. Now we have between 30 and 40 of them including a triumphal arch built to mfirst 20 years of independence and more will be built.

ics of Skopje 2014, however, say it is too expensive, has turned the city centre into something

embling Disneyland, and has an unwelcome ideological hue.

s kitschy and I think it creates an impression of who we are and where we belong that doesnt help

tions with our neighbours, says Branko Geroski, a political commentator.

transformation of Skopje is meant, in part, to promote a Macedonian identity stretching back to th

ent Greek and medieval Bulgarian empires that once held sway in the southern Balkans.

with the ebb and flow of invaders and armies, some of the Macedonian heroes are also claimed by

er countries. The erection of the statue of Alexander and another of Tsar Samuel of Bulgaria, for

mple, have irritated governments in Sofia and Athens.

Greeks are particularly tetchy. Athens has vetoed Macedonias membership of Nato and the start

accession talks since 2008, claiming its northern neighbours name reflects a veiled threat to its ow

on of Macedonia and must be changed. Two decades of intermittent talks on the name issue media

Alamy

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8/12/2019 Celebration of Skopjes heritage proves costly and divisive - Financial times

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UN special envoy have failed to produce a compromise.

many Macedonians the project has become a focus of discontent with Mr Gruevskis government.

ers in Skopjes Centar district, covering more than 100,000 residents of the city centre, backed an

osition candidate at municipal elections in March for the first time in a decade.

drej Zernovski, the new Centar mayor, wants to halt the project, pull down the triumphal arch and

ove most of the statues, which he says should be redistributed among the countrys rundown smal

es.

e governments biggest mistake was to go ahead without consulting the citizens who, after all, are

ing for the project, said Mr Zernovski, a lawmaker from the small Liberal Democratic party. Vote

ded it was too expensive and they were right...We face big cost overruns that we cant afford ande no idea where the money went.

budget for Skopje 2014, set at 80m when the project was launched four years ago, had risen to

7m, Mr Gruevski admitted.

Zernevski said he planned to call in an international auditor to examine the project after discovering

government paid high prices for many of the largest statues. We found out you can buy a good-siz

ue for around 65,000, yet those of Dame Gruev and Goce Delchev [the two revolutionaries] by th

dge cost nearly 10 times that amount, he said.

me Gruev, a Macedonian-born schoolteacher, plotted against the Ottoman rulers of the south Balka

m his base in northern Greece. He worked with Goce Delchev, a Bulgarian expelled from a military

demy for political activity, on setting up a revolutionary movement for an independent Macedonia.y were killed in separate skirmishes with Ottoman troops, Gruev in 1906, Delchev in 1903.

ng spending on Skopje 2014 attracted the attention of the rating agency Standard & Poors, which

wngraded Macedonia by one notch to BBminus in May, citing among other problems recent increas

ublic capital expenditure on non-productive assets.

Mr Gruevski defended the project on economic grounds, saying the new administrative buildings h

bled the government to make savings on rent, while keeping local construction companies afloat and

viding employment for about 10,000 people in a country with a 30 per cent jobless rate.

ad also contributed to a 10-15 per cent annual rise in tourism to Skopje, he said.

dislav Benark and his wife Jana, visitors from the Czech Republic, said they were surprised and

ressed by the array of statues in the square. I think its a big impression for tourists because we

me around the corner and wow these are very nice statues, said Mrs Benark.

ditional reporting by Kester Eddy

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