Ah yes, a country of golden children, where even the state secret exam is no secret at all.

What are you afraid of, for God’s sake, we’ve been living in a democracy for 35 years.

Do you think it's easy to live every day with the belief that you’re at the centre of the world, while at the same time fearing every day you might disappear?

Out of 50 police officers, how many justify domestic violence?

The one who appoints the prosecutor tells him how to work. Since when is that strange?

For under 50,000 euros, I don't even get out of bed

Money was collected in the budget because they taxed even the donations we gave for Kochani, but there is no money for inspectors.

Trust is also a suspect, but it’s inaccessible to law enforcement agencies because it’s on the run

Don’t get too excited about the EU, first thing next week there’ll be a new issue to keep us entertained.

Well, miss, if your health is at stake, buy the coat, live a little.

How come they don’t pose for photographs when they sell off state land and issue building permits that turn individual houses into entire apartment blocks? Or when they legalise illegal constructions?

Apparently, officials’ salaries are going to be reduced by the end of the government’s mandate. Why not reduce them now? By the end of the mandate, will they somehow hold a larger majority in the Assembly than they do now?

How does the Macedonian government plan to help Macedonians in Bulgaria? At the expense of Macedonians in Macedonia.

Until the next call, back to the studio for some music.

It’s devastating that we’re discussing civilisational standards that the world we aspire to join put in place at least thirty years ago. And we’re already in the 26th year of the 21st century.

Switzerland is to blame for reminding us of Macedonia.

The season of emigrants returning home was effectively opened by the chimpanzee Koko back in 2019, when he came back from the Netherlands after recovering from a deep depression caused by life in Skopje.

We’ll now move from the topic of migrants to the topic of how to find an excuse to silence the opposition.

I don’t want to jinx it, but the list of everything that could become another Kochani is alarmingly long.

It’s lovely that we now have cameras to record traffic violations, since we claim to want a normal state. The only thing left is to make sure they don’t conveniently break down when “one of ours” needs to be fined. It’s a matter of life or death. Literally. And figuratively.  

If a linear increase in pensions is possible, why wouldn’t a linear VAT refund be possible too?

Macedonians in Bulgaria are EU citizens. Macedonians in Greece are EU citizens. The descendants of refugee children from Greece born in Eastern European countries that are now part of the EU are EU citizens. And Macedonians in Macedonia who’ve declared themselves Bulgarian just to obtain Bulgarian passports are also EU citizens. Most of them live in the EU. Only Macedonians who hold a Macedonian passport aren’t EU citizens.

Let’s ask the public whether we should abolish the judiciary and have only a party-run court?

The parade of bin lorries flashing their rotating lights through the capital looks great. But they’re not bright enough to light our way to the EU.

I wonder, what kind of sunny day dawned on us that we’ve already forgotten Kochani?

Four years from now we’ll have gone from the Middle Ages to the time of Alexander the Great. When people had no idea about the dangers of infectious diseases.

Have they even finished the projects they promised us four years ago, that they’re already promising new ones?

I fear the memory of the Kochani tragedy will fade just as quickly as the assassination attempt on President Gligorov did thirty years ago. Especially since it’s been six months and we haven’t seen a single systemic reform that could prevent another catastrophe.

Either take your shot, or leave the game

Oh, to think that by now we should have been riding for free on the new 200 eco-friendly buses, and instead, we’re happy when a bin lorry shows up. And we even run after it to catch it.

We’ve been under a hybrid attack by a corrupt system of incompetent politicians for 34 years.

If voters don’t demand clean air, then why would the parties offer it?

“Vardarishte” has shown, once again, that the state is not there when you need it. Neither in regular nor in emergency conditions. Even though you fund it regularly.

The real question isn’t whether we live in a city or a village. It’s whether we’re actually living in this century.

That’s how far our standards have fallen. We’re supposed to be grateful if the rubbish in the capital gets collected on a daily basis.

You didn’t order a salad. You’ve saved a fortune. Seven percent.

The very thing keeping our people abroad is the same thing that could just as easily drive us out.

A normal person can’t keep up with all their nonsense. Someone has to work. So they can keep collecting their salaries. So they can carry on with their nonsense.

This country is rich. There’s still plenty left to plunder in Macedonia, even without the EU.

The best is yet to come. There will be water too. And a video that will celebrate water finally flowing from the taps.

The destruction of Ohrid’s coastline is well underway, but we won’t make it in time, give us just a bit more time to finish destroying it.

We’ll eat our peppers, we’ll choke on corruption and rubbish, and we’ll wait to die in some tragedy like the one in Kochani. That is, unless someone runs us over on a footpath in the middle of a park first and takes our soul that way.

“Everything for my people.” As for “your” people? I couldn’t care less…

It’s clearly in the public’s best interest for the controllers to be on duty when we, mere mortals, are travelling, but when the government plane takes off, or when official delegations charter flights to sign more historic strategic agreements, the directors’ advisors and Ventilation Command Unit can take their seats in the Control Tower.

Skopje residents pay once to have their rubbish collected. Then they pay a second time because their rubbish isn’t collected.

In a country where the public has a short memory, it’s only natural for every new day to be historic.

How come you immediately suspect corruption just because a fashion studio with only two employees is to sew police uniforms for 2 million euros, and it doesn’t occur to you that our police officers will soon look like runway models?

Considering that, in the first act, Mickoski spoke of a “strategic partnership with a powerful European county,” and in the second, he announced “good news for Macedonia,” by the third act he’ll have to reveal the interest rate on the loan.

So here we are, heading back from 2025 to 2008, and at this rate, all that’s left for us it dig graves and go searching for Alexander.

Sorry Sweden, sorry Norway, and especially sorry Denmark.

What exactly scared the ruling MPS? Were they afraid of being booed by the families of the victims from Kochani? So what? That’s the voice of the very people who elected them.

The state failed to control a shed in Kochani that operated as a nightclub because everyone signed off that it was up to standard and safe, and 62 young people burned to death, and now we’re expected to believe it will control businesses operating on cultural heritage sites.

Is the government, by denying you treatment in state-run public health facilities, enabling private hospitals to get rich?

A state director once said to me: “It’s easy to criticise. Win an election, and you’ll have a table waiting for you at any restaurant.”  To be honest, I was left speechless. 

As much as the government now has a chance that it mustn’t miss if it genuinely wants to reset the corrupt system, we – the citizens – mustn’t miss that chance even more. When there’s no strong citizenry, there are no strong institutions.

At the moment, the Government has a carte blanche if it truly wants to make a change. And it has the opportunity to set things right in one go, without having to justify itself to criminals for doing so.

Once we stand before the Monument to Corruption, each of us will have the chance to ask ourselves: What do I expect from myself as a citizen of this country? Do I expect to live, or merely to survive?

If the state had brought the hammer down on Palcho back in the 1990s when he built his first illegal building in Skopje’s Debar Maalo, surely the teenager Vanja from Skopje and the collateral victim Panche from Veles would still be alive today.

Intoxicated by the "new normal," let's not wake up one day, hungover, to the question "Has anyone heard of North Macedonia?"

European waste is our waste too.

Until now, we’ve offered ourselves to foreign capitalists as cheap labour force, and from now, as slaves to the techno-feudalists.

The devil finds work for idle hands

Only Trump can save Ohrid from UNESCO

Does corruption kill? Yes, we’ve just seen that it does.

At least 100 families didn’t even wait for the end of the school year to move abroad. They were in such a rush to escape this beauty.

That goal ain’t a goal

“There wasn’t even a spark, everything was protected and nothing was damaged”

It’s terrible that our young people are leaving. But what’s more terrible than the absence of young people is the absence of shame.

Let’s kindly put an end to the issue of the work of the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption. Forever and ever, amen.

It’s a Balkan Schengen for the Balkan elite

These people can’t even clean up their rubbish on their own. Both literally and figuratively.

Purging demons as the teacher’s challenge

We’ll change black to white, just to have things our way

Congratulate Macedonia

In fact, they refuse to realise that we are - isolated.

We, who’ve stayed here, need to live. Not hope.

“National security shouldn’t be a topic of interest for the public.” You don’t say. Then what should be a topic of interest for the public?

This story is true. And undoubtedly, very interesting. From every aspect.

Hey, Prime Minister, you’re in power, sit down and write the letter to the EU. And make sure to certify it in the Assembly before sending it out.

We’d write a letter, but there’s no one to address it to

We don't submit to bootlicking, yet we obtain Bulgarian passports

It’s really depressing to be asking myself this question after 33 years.

We won’t pay for psychiatric treatments to address your frustrations

Our young people are itching to come back. To marvel at Kjoseto. Since, hope is felt all over the country.

In 2024, we should go 33 years back. All the way to the first lesson in basic decency.

If there are no buses, take a taxi.

The people playing by their own rules are gone. Yet, there’s a new sheriff in town – Gashi.

We’ll replace your gang with our gang.

Fine. Seek out enemies. But, at least make sure you find them. Don’t adopt the approach of making the big revelation and then leaving others to figure things out.

The fight goes on, in holiday speeches. However, in reality, our young people are continuing the fight in countries that offer them a chance for a better life.

Why do we publish the names of the new directors of clinics, hospitals, and other public health institutions? So we’d know who to call if we need to pull some strings.

We had a special prosecutor who went down over purses and a sofa, and now we have an Anti-Corruption Commission that might go down due to cutting in line at border crossings.

His stomach hurt. If we weren’t in NATO, his head would’ve hurt and who knows what else. If the state existed at all.

How sweet it is when you blame others for your mistakes. And at the same time, you cling to the idea that no one will remember them.

It’s a “Mile, I have an idea!” type of situation.

The Americans want to save our Ohrid Lake. We don’t actually need saving. We don’t mind corruption

There’ll be a new Ministry of Declining Jurisdiction with a Deputy Prime Minister who’d lead the body for interdepartmental coordination of incompetence across all ministries and state and municipal institutions.

They should stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes by saying that the citizens voted for them because they wanted to have more ministers.

The Italian ribbon is small, and the name Macedonia is large

Which country? Whether North or not, at least Macedonia would ring in their ears.