Politics & Power Quote by Boris Trajkovski

Trajkovski frames leadership as a daily moral audit, not a victory lap. The line about “two things” is deceptively simple: it reduces the messy machinery of a presidency to an almost private ritual of conscience. That’s not naivete; it’s a rhetorical bid for legitimacy in a region where legitimacy was contested at gunpoint and in parliament. By insisting he weighs “right” and “wrong,” he positions himself above factional appetites and ethnic score-settling, claiming a higher jurisdiction than party or tribe.

The phrase “President of my people” does extra work. In the Macedonian context of the early 2000s - post-Yugoslav fragmentation, fragile institutions, and the 2001 conflict between state forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents - “my people” is a loaded pronoun. It risks sounding majoritarian even as it aims for unity. The subtext is a tightrope: speak as a national father without erasing the fact that the nation is plural.

“According to my conscience” functions like a shield. It suggests integrity, but it also quietly acknowledges the limits of procedure: when courts, coalitions, and international mediators pull in different directions, conscience becomes the last stable instrument a leader can claim. Then he lands on “peace” and “prosperity,” the classic post-conflict pairing: stop the bleeding, then make life normal enough that resentment has less oxygen. It’s aspirational, yes, but also strategic - a promise calibrated for both domestic audiences craving stability and external partners (EU, NATO) looking for a reform-minded, reliable state.