1 Our Government says: “How we’ll spend your money is a secret. And if we reveal the secret, we’ll spend even more of your money”.
In other words, even before the construction works have started, we can already be certain that the four motorway sections that will be built by the American-Turkish consortium “Bechtel-Enka” will cost more than 1.3 billion euros. How much more, we don’t know.
It’s not that the government is no longer in touch with reality. They are in touch with their own reality. There, in their reality, we should be convinced that they’re protecting our interests because they’ve signed a secret clause and if they reveal it to us we’ll have to pay more. In their reality, it doesn’t matter if the term is penalties or additional costs, since they don’t pay them from the family budget anyway.
The problem doesn’t lie in the “Bechtel-Enka” Corporation. When it comes to a private corporation, there is no ideology or nation. The only ideology is – money. Is there anything strange about a private company wanting to earn as much as possible? And is there really anything strange about the private company protecting only its own interest? What’s truly strange is that the state isn’t protecting its own interest, but the interest of the corporation.
It feels like we’re back to the times of Ljubco Georgievski at the end of the 1990s and the sale of the “Okta” refinery. The MPs voted for an agreement they hadn’t seen, as it was declared confidential. Then we had to pay millions of euros in penalties. We’re in a similar situation now. The MPs are being asked to vote on changes to nine laws because the Government signed such an agreement, although they don’t know what the contract entails. If they don’t pass them, the state will pay penalties.
How did the conversation with the representatives of “Bechtel-Enka” go? No problem, the Assembly is ours. We’ll bring the laws before the MPs on Friday, they’ll pass them on Monday. They don’t read anything anyway, they just vote the way we tell them to. So what if it’s a law that the Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional a few months ago. You don’t believe us they’ll vote as instructed? Wanna bet? How much shall we bet? Ok, let’s bet 53 million euros. Is it too much!? Oh, come on. It’s not like we’ll pay the 53 million out of pocket. Even if we lose the bet, we’ll pay the money from the state budget. You’ll pay it back somehow. And to someone.
The fact the Government signed an agreement according to which national laws should be changed to suit a private company, is because the consultant company that was in charge of negotiating the conditions for the road construction had experience in the production of underpants. So, the main logic in the protection of the public interest is probably based on our saying: You can’t catch a fish with a dry bottom. And our Government accepted that logic and even upgraded it. You can’t catch a fish with a bare bottom.
2 The Government says: Don’t ask us questions about money. Our eyes are set to the future.
It’s more like your eyes are set to your pockets. And your eyes are set to whatever you can grab before you fall from power, so you’d be able to buy yourself a nice stay when you’re in opposition.
There are no longer any dilemmas about what future awaits us with this SDSMDUI government. We’re already in the tunnel. However, the light we see at the end of the tunnel is not the exit. It’s the light of the VMROLEVICA train which is coming from the opposite direction on the same track and will leave us stuck in this tunnel. There’s another, parallel track, which apparently goes towards the EU, but even that light is not the bright European future. It’s the light of the train coming from Bulgaria with such force that it wants to run us over. For us to be gone.
Whichever way we decide to go, we’ll remain stuck in the tunnel. And the light is getting close and closer.
3 I find it incredibly disappointing when I see the same people who fiercely protested against VMRO-DPMNE and fought against them when they discredited anyone who was not like-minded, are now doing the same. It’s been only 6 or 7 years since the time when VMRO’s lackeys marked us with red circles, and we lived to see SDSM use its network of lackeys to discredit and put down anyone who thinks differently from the party. It’s a matter of time before they make the front pages. Not only did they find the notebooks Martin Protogjer and Ilija Dimovski wrote, but they even studied them thoroughly and started upgrading them in practice, and with an incredible speed they managed to alienate the people of the Colourful Revolution, who believed in them that the evil of the dishonest rule of VMRO-DPMNE would never be repeated. If they fought for “no justice, no peace” with the same fervour they fight against those who point out their mistakes, they wouldn’t come to a situation where they’re making enemies out of those who believed they shared common values.
Now that they’ve reduced the party to that level, nothing can save them, not red vests, not even red life vests. To be honest, nothing can save us either, considering the choice we’re left with.
4 The state auditor determined that the Municipality of Arachinovo doesn’t keep a register of real estate, doesn’t issue decisions on property tax, has no income from the communal tax companies should pay, has no income from the maintenance of building land… On top of that, the mayor took a 3.000 euro advance from the municipal account and didn’t return it, the councillors were paid 30.000 euros although there is no record of whether they attended the Council sessions, and in just one year, 10.000 euros were spent of lunches and cocktails.
We can assume that this is the way the local authorities of Arachinovo is sending the Government a message to continue the practices set by Zoran Zaev, like the time in 2020 when he gave them half a million euros from the state budget, just in case. We don’t collect our money, but we’ll gladly spend yours.
Here’s another opportunity for Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi. In addition to all the coordinating titles he has in the Government, let them authorize him to collect money for Arachinovo. Let’s make the most of the moment, since the laws on “Bechtel-Enka” are in parliamentary procedure, and have the Government add one more law to the package. For each uncollected denar in the Municipality of Arachinovo, let them have one euro from the state budget. Don’t rock the boat and just give them money. Lex specialis for Arachinovo.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
