Address to the School for Young Leaders of North Macedonia
Dear President Ivanov, dear participants of this year’s School for Young Leaders,
I am honoured by being asked to address you at the opening day of your gathering. I remember very positively my visit to Ohrid seven years ago. It was in the middle of August, in perfect sunny weather. It is different now, we do not have summer, and we are not together in Ohrid overlooking the beautiful Ohrid Lake.
The reason we are not in Ohrid, we are not together, and we are not looking at each other, is only partly due to the strength of the covid epidemic, or at least of its medical aspect. I am convinced it is much more the consequence of the overreaction of governments all over the world to it and of the misuse of the covid epidemic by media spreading fear throughout the whole world. This leads to the apotheosis of social distancing as a result of which we cannot meet each other anymore. I consider it a dangerous step towards the a