1 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 immediately got down to work to revise the Law on the Organisation and Operation of the State Administration Bodies. To be honest, when I hear the term “State Administration Bodies,” the first thing that comes to mind is the word “on a break,” the message: “come another time, the colleague isn’t here, I don’t know when they’ll be back,” the excuse “the system is down,” and the terrible dilemma that naturally arises around this time of year, when people have to take last year’s holiday days:”on the first, or the second finger of Halkidiki?”

The mandate holder for the composition of the new government, Hristijan Mickoski, proposed amendments to the law and instead of the current 16, the Government will have 20 ministries, and instead of the current 20 ministers, some with a portfolio and some without, his Government will consist of 24 ministers. The leader of VMRO-DPMNE urged all MPs to support these changes “in the name of the reforms,” referring to the huge support that the “Your Macedonia” coalition received in the elections.

He justified the need for new ministries by saying that it was a matter of “reconsidering and rationalising, including the possibility of merging or abolishing certain state bodies.” The professor explained it with mathematical precision, as he always does whenever he explains something, especially when he expresses his personal opinions.

In his Maths, minus and minus equals a plus, so similarly, the word rationalisation means more. More votes in the elections equals more ministries. The larger the party, the more members and their needs to satisfy. More ministries, more deputy ministers, more offices, more advisors, more associates, more cars, more per diems…

During its time in opposition, VMRO-DPMNE always protested and accused SDSM and DUI of abusing the procedure to fast-track laws in the Assembly. However, now VMRO-DPMNE and the “VLEN” coalition suddenly find all procedures important, making even the laws urgent. It’s not just about distributing ministerial positions. Over 3,000 state institutions are up for grabs. That’s why they’re in a rush to legally secure the positions they’ve already agreed on, ensuring that tomorrow “everything will be according to the law, boss.”

As a matter of fact, they have the majority in the Assembly, they can do whatever they want. But 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.

2 The discussion still hasn’t died down whether the new Government will abide by the Prespa Agreement solely in written form or also in spoken form, and there’s already a new discussion whether the new president of the Assembly, Afrim Gashi, considers Macedonia his motherland, where he was born and raised, or Kosovo, where his parents were born. People demanded an apology, then complained about the way he apologised, he mentioned “North” in the apology, so the apology doesn’t count…

After four decades in journalism, I’m sick and tired of absurd problems, and even more so of the absurd solutions to those problems. I’m exhausted of wasting time on the fixation with who we are, what we are, why we are, where we are, who we are with.

The world has managed to discover a vaccine against cancer, but back here, it’s already been more than two weeks and we still haven’t discovered the source of the stench in the operating theatres of the Clinical Centre in Skopje. Plus, the Clinical Centre is not the only place where it stinks. It’s not like healthcare is the only burning issue here. Regardless if it’s SDDM, VMRO-DPMNE, DUI, or VLEN..That’s the capacity of our institutions, that’s the expertise of the human resources left in our country, that’s the integrity of the people in charge, that’s the discipline of the employees.

3 You know what? We should be happy that the clinics stink, and that we can pick up on it with our noses. Imagine if they didn’t. Perhaps things would be even worse.

Imagine how bad our everyday life is if we’re consoling ourselves that we were struck by the lesser evil. That’s how we vote in elections. For the lesser evil.

The stench in the operating theatres, one way or another, will eventually fade. Perhaps they’ll buy compressors. Usually, when we need to decorate the city for the New Year festivities or when we need to participate in Eurovision, we calculate how many ambulances can be bought with that money. It’s time to start calculating in compressors.

Four new ministries will now need to be provided with cars, furniture, mobile phones… Half a million citizens found that more important than the concerns where they’d get a surgery.

4 After SDSM’s historically catastrophic defeat in the elections, after every column, I receive comments that I shouldn’t complain because I myself wanted VMRO back and that I shouldn’t be surprised that VMRO-DPMNE is actually back because I was one of the ones who criticised the government.

It’s horrible that their fellow party members and supporters weren’t bothered by the incompetence of the government and corruption, but they were bothered by the journalists who pointed all that out.

Don’t you dare lecture me about VMRO. Until recently, I spent countless hours in court as a witness in the trials concerning the illegal wiretapping, where I was a victim, while people at SDSM gloated. And the very ones who discovered the wiretapping incident and the crimes ended up saving criminals and eavesdroppers from prison, making sure they themselves will be saved when it’s their turn to go to prison. Now they’re preaching that it wasn’t their actions that brought VMRO back, but rather the journalists and the non-affiliated.

They should feel ashamed, not us.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski