Columns

TO HELL WITH IT

Diplomatic passports are the real problem. If all members of the Anti-Corruption Commission had diplomatic passports like President Tatjana Dimitrovska, perhaps even Cveta...

read more

OPEN BORDERS

Is there any other country with more high-profile individuals on the U.S. blacklist than ours? Among those the State Department has designated for significant corruption, we...

read more

ACTING ON A TIP

Did you catch how U.S. Ambassador Angela Aggeler put it, after the U.S. Department designated formed Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi and Appellate Court Judge Enver Bexheti...

read more

SUPERMAN VS NEWTON

The broken arms and legs will heal, and thankfully, none of the eleven children who ended up in hospital were seriously injured while doing the “Superman Challenge” on TikTok. I...

read more

A CELEBRATION LIKE NO OTHER

  How much brain power does it take to both condemn and justify the desecration of the Macedonian national flag during the celebration of Albanian Flag Day? The opposition DUI...

read more

HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE

How will we wash our name clean after bringing the incompetent Danela Arsovska into power as mayor of Skopje? By putting citizens through so much trouble that they’ll think...

read more

MAINTAINING THE STYROFOAM

Our lives in are stuck in a vicious circle of seasonal topics. They’re always the same. It's November, so, of course, we'll start talking about pollution. Once the ski seasons...

read more

OPTIMISM ON THE SIDELINES

Gosh, just listen to the optimism Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski is spreading after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the European Political...

read more

LET’S GO TO THE DISCO

  “Sanja Bozhinovska is a greater Macedonian than all of you combined,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said from the parliamentary rostrum when asked whether he knew that the...

read more

BARON AND LADY

 The New Year is just around the corner, followed closely by Christmas, and with the holidays comes another round of pardons from President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova. Let’s...

read more

CLUB ACADEMY

Now, what? Prime Minister Mickoski says that he’s facing a dilemma over whether to even send a letter to the EU proposing ways to unblock the negotiation process. He recently...

read more

A LETTER TO NOWHERE

The government has an idea how to unblock the EU negotiations. However, it’s in no hurry to act. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced that “they would address and work...

read more

100 DAYS AND 90 MINUTES

Let this weekend pass, and with any luck, the razzle-dazzle of “100 days of government” will finally come to a close. Fingers crossed, starting Monday, VMRO-DPMNE and VLEN will...

read more

AND NOW WHAT?

After it became even more certain that Albania will continue its negotiations with the European Union without waiting for Macedonia to include Bulgarians in the Constitution,...

read more

A PIECE OF HIS MIND IN VAIN

  Wow, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski really gave Ursula von der Leyen  a piece of his mind during a lunch in Brussels. He defended the national interests without lowering...

read more

A SERIOUS INCIDENT

I don’t even want to imagine the scale of disaster two planes colliding would cause. Especially, over a populated area… The aviation authorities have launched an investigation...

read more

A TRUE GENTLEMAN

On the eve of Independence Day, September 8, I was reminded of an interview with the late Ratka Dimitrova that she gave to our news outlet in 2016, when we marked the 25th...

read more

WE KNOW HOW IT WORKS

How does offering and accepting bribes work? You don’t know? How could you not know, everyone does. That’s what Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski says. He claimed that someone...

read more

A WEDDING PROCESSION

It’s alarming to see how many more police officers, inspectors, shift supervisors, and customs officers will be fined or dismissed by the time these guys from the “VLEN”...

read more

NOTEBOOKS, SCHMOTEBOOKS

  It’s disheartening when a supreme judge and a member of the Council of Public Prosecutors accept a bribe of 15,000 euros from a defendant to manipulate a court case in his...

read more

VIP TREATMENT

Since Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has gone on holiday, it must mean that things are not as bleak as we’d think regarding the defence of the state’s integrity and...

read more

THE FOURTH REPUBLIC

Holidays are often accompanied by holiday speeches. Usually, they paint a picture of an imaginary future. It will be fulfilled, we’ll do this, we’ll find a way, and we’ll make...

read more

AN AMNESIA PILL

After the statement by SDSM leader Venko Filipche, acknowledging that during the campaign they realised the mistake they had made with the amendments to the Criminal Code, which...

read more

A DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT

So, it could be done after all. In a crisis situation, such as the current forest fires, the state can coordinate all institutions in a timely manner to intervene effectively....

read more

TASHMARUNISHTA IN WASHIGTON

Will someone please make the Prime Minister some mint tea, for crying out loud? He went to Washington to commemorate the 75th anniversary of NATO, sat at the same table with 31...

read more

LIBERATE THE LIBERATORS

 It’s great that the Government has decided to abolish the economic director positions at the Skopje clinics. The only step remaining is to actually abolish them. After a dozen...

read more

A GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT

It’s a familiar state. However, this time, we don’t refer to it as a national disaster simply because VMRO-DPMNE is in power. After winning the elections, they are constantly...

read more

WATER EXPERTS

  The European Union will start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova on June 25. Good for them. They don’t have such big problems with good neighbours like we do with...

read more

MARHSALL PLAN

Our entire country is a representative sample that could be used for a case study in declining jurisdiction. We could travel the world, offering training sessions to other...

read more

IT’S A GOOD THING IT STINKS

 Half a million citizens voted for you, and the first thing you do once you come to power is create four new ministries. The new parliamentary majority led by VMRO-DPMNE...

read more

THE SILENCE OF THE BASHED HEADS

  Well, when it comes to the election of Afrim Gashi as the President of the Assembly, I don’t know if we should see it as an act of repentance by VMRO-DPMNE for their attack on...

read more

HALKIDIKI AND THESSALONIKI

Let’s enjoy the long holiday weekend. I mean, the fight over the name can totally wait, right? Macedonian literacy is being celebrated in Greece. Could there be a more fitting...

read more

TRUE FRIENDS

  In that case, how about we bring VMRO back? Congratulations. At this point, analysing how and why SDSM suffered its greatest electoral defeat in history is just a waste of...

read more

MONEY TREE

With five days until the parliamentary elections and the second round of presidential elections, it seems irrelevant to me to analyse who said what at the rallies, how...

read more

ALAS, MY RED SOUL

After the disastrous result of SDSM in the first round of the presidential elections, where the difference between Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova and Stevo Pendarovski is 180,000...

read more

MURTI AND KURTI

Everyone will get a day off. So everyone would be able go to the elections. God, what a decision. The Wednesdays when the elections will be held have been declared non-working...

read more

LICENCE TO STEAL

The consistent policy of rewarding bandits and punishing taxpayers continues in Macedonia. The European Commission demands that the state return 2.2 million euros within 30 to...

read more

SORRY FOR UPSETTING YOU

The most interesting part in the televised leadership duel between Dimitar Kovachevski and Hristijan Mickoski occurred when the lottery girl Marjana Stanojkovska appeared on...

read more

A BATTLE FOR LOOSE PRODUCTS

I don’t know if it’s because Macedonia is small, so we all seem to know each other in some way, or if it’s because of the fatigue from the three-decade-long transition and the...

read more

AN ABSURD TURN OF EVENTS

The U.S. State Department blacklisted the mayor of Karposh and presidential candidate Stevcho Jakimovski because “he was involved in corrupt acts, including using his official...

read more

TOMORROW HAS COME

The Registry Office apologised to the mayor of Karposh municipality, Stevcho Jakimovski, for issuing a death certificate to his son and daughter-in-law instead of a marriage...

read more

ANOTHER NIGHT, ANOTHER CRITERION DOWN

In the presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 April and 8 May, people will be able to vote with an expired ID card or passport, provided that their validity has expired...

read more

DOWN THE DRAIN

The pre-election campaign has kicked off with parties sowing fear. SDSM is scaring us that VMRO might return. VMRO is scaring us that SDSM would stay in power. DUI doesn’t see...

read more

A PASSPORT SANDWICH

The additional Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mitko Bojmacliev, embarked on a journey to the Bogorodica border crossing in the middle of the night to personally welcome the...

read more

AT THE READY

 The highlight of my week was a photo from the Macedonian embassy in Brussels. Technical Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi visited the EU headquarters. To strengthen the country’s...

read more

“DONKEY DESK” DETENTION

 The elections are approaching. The parties are commissioning polls about their popularity, they’re lifting their own spirits, they’re bidding on the number of voters and...

read more

STATE ARREST

The judicial precautionary measure – confiscating the travel documents of suspects and those accused of a crime – has started to lose its meaning. Starting from 13 February,...

read more

DEFEAT AS A VICTORY

 Twenty-four elementary students and 26 high school students from Shtip didn’t show up at school in the second semester. They moved abroad with their parents. It’s not that the...

read more

THE TIME IS COMING

The fact VMRO-DPMNE states it will participate with ministers in the technocratic government but won’t vote for the Government, as stupid as it may sound, is not inexplicable...

read more