By Azir Aliu
Europe Day inspires me to set emotions aside and ask myself one question: when we say “Europe,” do we mean a dream or a standard that fills the reality of our lives? The idea of Europe cannot be exhausted through romantic stories; it implies an order of things in which laws apply equally to both the strong and the weak, institutions that do not succumb to informal channels of influence, public money that does not disappear into the shadow of the grey economy, schools that produce knowledge rather than apathy, and a state that enables you to succeed. Yesterday, on May 9, precisely this idea was celebrated — that normality can be stronger than privilege. That thought was most present to me as I watched unification by principle become a decision.
That is why our VLEN Congress, held yesterday, was not filled only with the temporal symbolism linked to the calendar date of May 9; it was also a political act of choosing to be judged and evaluated through European political values, standards, and criteria. This implies political conduct oriented toward citizens, characterized by speaking and promising clearly, making transparent decisions without double signals, and standing by one’s word even when it is difficult. Yesterday, VLEN completed itself as a single party that will be a political force carrying European standards. We do not wear European values as decoration, but as an obligation that will keep us awake.
As an Albanian in this country, I know the most expensive political cost — fragmentation. Division always appears as “pluralism,” but in the end it often turns out to be a weakness paid for by citizens. When the voice is fragmented, anyone can condition it; when the will is scattered, anyone can negotiate it; and when hope is broken into small pieces, it easily turns into disappointment. VLEN was created precisely against that matrix; it was born as resistance to a politics that lives off our differences instead of carrying our strength. Yesterday, that idea crystallized, taking a form in which we can be one.
No major issue will any longer be turned into a petty marketplace of who gets what, who becomes what, who gains what. We are not here to continue that tradition of political pettiness. VLEN will be the break with the habit of perceiving politics as private gain. If there is one thing Europe teaches, it is that public office is not a trophy, but an obligation measured by results. The people are tired of politics reduced to “who will get what,” and hungry for politics that asks, “what will we do?”
That is precisely why I repeat the programmatic formula we voted on yesterday as a public obligation: VLEN is unification. VLEN is a new direction. VLEN is dignity. VLEN is work. VLEN is a European future.
“Unification” means there is no longer room for parallel lines that consume trust. “A new direction” means we stop moving in circles around the same schemes: clientelism, privileges, political arrogance. “Dignity” means that the citizen must never feel small before the state. “Work” means political speech must be translated into concrete laws, budgets, projects, and deadlines. “A European future” means that standards will be implemented here, at home, not merely filling political speeches.
One of Europe’s most important lessons is that democracy does not live only in the center. It lives everywhere people live their lives: in the municipality, in the school, in the clinic, in infrastructure. If the local level is weak, the citizen is distant from the state, and then the state becomes a myth rather than a service. VLEN carries the idea of genuine municipal power, balanced development, and an end to the “periphery as destiny.”
There is no European future without cleansing politics of erosive behavior that undermines the system. And in this direction, we will be strict. Corruption is not an abstract “systemic error” — corruption is poverty being produced, injustice being normalized, and emigration being justified. It punishes the honest person, rewards the arrogant one, and turns the state into a comfortable space for various corrupt and clientelist networks. Anti-corruption will evolve into a permanent political method of transparency, traceability, digital footprints, public data, professional procedures, and institutional reactions that are not selective. Europe is strict in all these segments, and we too must be strict.
If Albanians in Macedonia have one historical political consistency, it is their European orientation. It is a choice repeated for decades. But European orientation must not remain merely an identity label; it must become a policy recognizable in everyday life: whether young people stay, whether the diaspora returns, whether a business can open without paying a “tax” to some intermediary, whether jobs are earned through merit, whether medicine, services, or justice are reached more quickly.
I do not believe in a future sold as something that “will come on its own.” The future is built by people who dare to change and break with the old. That is why young people must not be decoration in politics; they will be a driving force with the right to speak, a place in decision-making, and the space to criticize and lead. The same applies to women: there is no modern politics if half of society is kept on the margins or treated as a number. Europe is measured by how free women are — in safety, in the economy, in dignity, in leadership. VLEN will make these goals visible and measurable, not merely beautiful programmatic declarations.
In the program, we also included something too often neglected: the idea that a state develops when it connects. Corridor 8 is not merely a road and railway; it is a political economy of dignity, of opening opportunities, connecting markets, reducing isolation, and creating perspective. Corridor 8 and the road-rail links with Albania, together with improved communication and mobility with Kosovo, are a developmental artery of the region, and Albanian-populated areas must not remain a periphery, but should become a bridge of economy, culture, and regional cooperation. Every infrastructure project that shortens the distance between people and opportunity also shortens the distance between Macedonia and Europe.
One day after the Congress, there is no reason for self-satisfaction. I feel this as a personal responsibility, not as a comfortable victory. On the contrary, today the harder part begins — to prove that the unification was not merely a moment, but the development of a new European political capacity, and to show that the “new direction” is truly new, not a repetition of the same habits under a new name.