1 The photograph in Parliament from the commemorative session for the 63 people who died in the Kochani fire on 16 March last year, showing President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi and Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski standing at the front, with MPs behind them in formal attire, solemn and sombre, looked like a scene from the trial before Pontius Pilate. Everyone present, each of them holding responsible positions in the state, and yet none of them guilty.
Holding a commemoration a year after the national tragedy looked very much like washing the guilt from their hands. Only this time, instead of Pilate’s basin of water, there was a speech.
2 Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski stated after the commemoration that “in memory of those who lost their lives, we unite in sorrow, but also in hope for a safer future.”
First of all, those lives were not lost. Those people were killed by disregard for the law and by corruption. From local level all the way up to the state.
And as for the part about us being “united in hope for a safer future”, coincidentally, that very same day the State Audit Office published a report revealing that the State Inspectorate for Construction and Urbanism was operating with only one construction inspector and two urbanism inspectors for the entire country. According to the report, there should have been at least eight inspectors for all regions, but the Ministry of Finance hadn’t given its consent for new employment. Whatever these few inspectors did determine was simply ignored, because the mayors didn’t give a damn and didn’t act on their findings. Since 2018 there’s been no public call for the appointment of a director, and instead the parties in power have been filling that position with acting directors, without any advertisement.
Who’s to blame for this situation? Do the parties in power not have suitable people for the posts of director and inspectors? Their members are interested only in securing a state salary, just enough to look busy, but without taking on any responsibility. Or perhaps the Minister of Finance is to blame for refusing to give consent for employment? There’s supposed to be a certain number of inspectors. And that requirement hasn’t been met. She saved money. It seems the coalition still hasn’t managed to find anyone with a clue for the job.
And then we wonder why we have thousands of illegal buildings. And why every day feels like a disaster waiting to happen, in the homes and buildings where we live, in the lifts we ride, on the pavements we walk on, at work, in theatres, cafés and nightclubs, even in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the stray dogs that eat us alive on the streets…
I feel like such a bore even to myself, let alone to the people close to me, always looking for dark spots at every turn. But be honest with yourselves, turn around, look around you and ask yourselves: what exactly has changed since Kochani, 16 March 2025?
Dear friends, in Kochani, our Kochani, which made headlines all over the world and is still being talked about, where the devastating fire tragedy occurred, there’s still no fire protection inspector. We’ll save money in the budget. Yet we’re perfectly willing to organise an international conference to mark the anniversary of this historic event. Money was collected in the budget because they taxed even the donations we gave for Kochani.
3 On the subject of saving money, in the context of illegal buildings, the protection of cultural heritage and the environment, the staffing of state inspection services and the responsiveness of municipal authorities, it occurred to me that last month four ministers and two mayors joined forces and hopped on a flight to Paris. To defend the illegal buildings in Ohrid and Struga from UNESCO.
4 The State Audit Office should be abolished. They keep finding all sorts of nonsense in state institutions. And whatever they uncover is useless anyway. No one is held accountable, no one fixes anything. They might as well fire the auditors. That would be an easy way for the Minister of Finance to save money again.
Besides, it’s such a peculiar job, they only reveal flaws. They never praise anything.
And the truth is that everything is historically wonderful.
5 European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said in the European Parliament that the EU mustn’t allow Trojan horses in the enlargement process.
“Countries who would undermine us from within cannot become an EU member state. Countries who join the EU must be strong and resilient democracies, able to resist the toxic influence of Russia and others,” Commissioner Kos said.
Sometimes I feel that the European Commissioner, who is Slovenian, has lost touch with reality, at least as far as Macedonia is concerned. She was one of us for a good part of her youth. We lived in the same country, went on the same excursions across Yugoslavia, attended the same summer camps on the Adriatic, studied in the same schools, went to the same concerts and were vaccinated with the same vaccines… So I naively believed that she’d feel personally hurt by what Bulgaria is doing to Macedonia. When her Slovenia was fighting to fulfill its European ideal, as we are now, no one told her – You are not Slovenian and you do not speak Slovenian.
How much longer will the EU continue to play naïve? Our problem isn’t including Bulgarians in the Constitution. Our problem is that an EU member state denies our nation and language with God knows how many resolutions and declarations adopted in its parliament.
The deviation from our path to the EU isn’t caused by Russia and others. It’s caused by an EU member state. Our disappointment with the EU’s lack of principles isn’t caused by the behaviour of Russia and others. It’s the consequence of a veto imposed by an EU member state. Our distrust of the EU isn’t the result of Russia and others disrespecting the Union’s fundamental values. Our distrust of the EU exists because those very values on which the EU was founded are being violated by a member state abusing its membership to block a country that wants to join. And the threat of political destabilisation in the country doesn’t come from the influence of Russia and others, but from the hostile behaviour of an EU member state towards its neighbour, behaviour that paves the way for the influence of Russia and others.
They already have Trojan horses inside the Union. We know this one well, because we’re personally affected. They may know the others.
6 Of all the aspects of the war in Iran and the hostilities in the Middle East, and all the global consequences of that instability, what I find most amusing is how some of our fellow citizens manage to find a positive angle. They’re poking fun: Now Zoran Zaev will lose his businesses in Dubai.
So they’re not worried that the price of oil will rise, that the price of food will rise, that some products may become scarce, that inflation will soar, that travelling will become dangerous, that uncertainty could under the threat of terrorism… All kinds of dark scenarios come to mind. But hey, how wonderful it is that Zoran Zaev will lose his businesses. And besides Zaev, Venko Filipche, of course.
You really have to be talented to look for something positive in a terrible war. As the folks in Bitola would say: may we be off to Dubai only for happy occasions.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
