On 17 February 2008 Kosovo declared independence, for many a sign of
the final point of the brake up of Yugoslavia. In the period after, the US
and the biggest EU member states, many of the Balkan countries and
other countries around the world recognized the independence of Kosovo.
As Serbian official position is still “Kosovo je Srbija” [Kosovo is
Serbia], the EU has deployed a mission that is deeply involved in the
nation and state building of Kosovo.
Macedonia until the end of May 2008 had not recognized the independence
of Kosovo. Yet the main ethnic Albanian political parties in Macedonia,
but also the political leadership in Kosovo, expect that the recognition
is a done deal. The relations between Skopje and Priština have
been minimal in the early 1990s. More recently, Macedonia has had a
history of interaction with Kosovo, during the war in Kosovo and the
refugee crisis in 1999 and during the 2001 conflict in the Preševo Valley.
As Macedonia has scheduled early parliamentary elections on 1
June 2008, the issue of Kosovo recognition will be undertaken by the
upcoming government.
After the 2001 conflict, Macedonia implemented the Ohrid Framework
Agreement (OFA), an instrument for managing ethnic diversity, a new
and innovative initiative considering the local and regional history.1
Although
the public opinion of the ethnic Macedonian and ethnic Albanians
diverged on the OFA issue, both communities showed similar attitudes toward public institutions.2
The stability and consolidation of Macedonia
depends on a viable model for managing inter-ethnic relations.
If the model sustains the test of time, it can further be used as a benchmark
or best practice for other places, such as Kosovo. The viability of
the model is dependent on the development and implementation of policies
deriving from OFA and also on the public support for this process.
The model is influenced by different internal and external factors. The
independence of Kosovo is the most recent external factor that has arisen.

This paper has three chapters. The first part unfolds the past Macedonian
ethnic politics and the status of Kosovo using instruments from theories
of transition and consolidation. The second part is an analysis of the
public opinion in Macedonia from May 2007 to May 2008, focusing
more particularly on the views of the ethnic communities of Albanians
and Macedonians in the Republic of Macedonia. The analysis encompasses
the views toward Kosovo in various aspects from personal sentiments
toward Kosovo to practical issues like the recognition and border
demarcation. As a conclusion, the third and last part of the paper analyses
the possible implications in Macedonia from the independence of
Kosovo.