1 The Criminal Court acquitted former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in the “Talir 2” case over the illegal donation used to build the VMRO-DPMNE headquarters. The statute of limitations expires next month anyway, but more importantly, with the acquittal there’s no chance of the White Palace being confiscated.
Previously, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski constantly lashed out at prosecutor Lenche Ristoska, who was handling the “Talir 1” and “Talir 2” cases in which the ruling party was accused. After that, Mickoski told the new State Prosecutor, Nenad Saveski, from the parliamentary rostrum what he expected of him. So Saveski removed Ristoska from the cases. She immediately resigned. In the meantime, VMRO-DPMNE, in a series of press conferences, demanded the dismissal of the judge handling the White Palace case.
By the way, let us recall once again that the amendments to the Criminal Code that reduced the penalties for officials and paved the way for the faster expiry of criminal cases against office-holders were passed during the rule of SDSM and DUI, with the help of VMRO-DPMNE. They decided to enter the chamber and provide a quorum, precisely on that day, 6 September 2023, even though they had previously blocked all parliamentary sessions. They collected their salaries by sitting in front of the door.
Well, finally, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said that “this time the court sided with justice”.
Now the judiciary’s ratings are sure to go up.
Back in 2017, when then Prime Minister Zoran Zaev was appearing in court accused of taking a bribe, he said he would make the judiciary bloom like a bud.
By 2026, Hristijan Mickoski is well on his way to making it bloom in a very different way.
2 Watching parliamentary sessions is like watching a competition in hate speech. It’s as though MPs simply can’t get enough of being nasty to one another.
If such verbal abuse comes from the parliamentary rostrum, what more is there to discuss? If today a member of the ruling party shouts at a member of the opposition “stop jumping around like a chicken”, why wouldn’t that chicken be plucked in the street tomorrow? Perhaps even have its little neck wrung.
And then the MPs act shocked, moralise and condemn bullying among children, and even convene committee hearings to discuss it. How do parties choose the people they put on their candidate lists? Does anyone with a fouler mouth than the leader get promoted further up the list?
Two weeks ago, those very same MPs posed for photographs after adopting a Code of Ethical Conduct.
At this rate, they’ll adopt a collection of foul words before we join the European Union.
3 Councillors from the governing SDSM and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE in the Centar Municipal Council joined forces to approve the construction of 13 residential buildings on Mount Vodno, which would require part of the forest to be cut down. Their colleague from the independent citizens’ list “Chance for Centar” practically begged them to vote according to their own judgement. “Are we really going to put the entire city at risk for the sake of a few overlords?” she appealed to their conscience and even used a scale model, as if explaining things to kindergarten children, to show them how one day Vodno could come crashing down on all of us.
All in vain. It’s hopeless watching party orders outweigh both the councillors’ common sense and the expertise of a distinguished architect. Either they’re stupid, or they have a personal interest. Perhaps both.
The municipality’s professional services say that this is the 21st century, that people have been to the Moon, and that technology makes it possible to build on Vodno’s steep slopes.
How exactly is Centar Municipality showing that we live in the 21st century? With pavements collapsing into holes left by unprotected construction sites, even on flat ground? How exactly is the capital showing that we live in the 21st century? With construction sites where workers are buried alive in foundation excavations? With a road, on the very slopes of Vodno, which split in half and gave way despite several repairs by Kisela Voda Municipality, and now has to be rescued with money from the state budget? A retaining wall beneath Vodno, above the Children’s Clinic, collapsed years ago, and the City, the Municipality and the Government spent years arguing over who was responsible for repairing it, yet we’re being told “people have been to the Moon”.
Those are some other people. We live in a country where 57 kilometres of motorway have been under construction for 12 years. It’s nowhere near completion because they can’t solve the landslide problems. Then again, why am I even talking about motorways, considering the fact that a public water utility in Gostivar illegally installed a pump to draw water from the Vardar River directly into the town’s drinking-water pipeline!
Some people really did go to the Moon. Meanwhile, in Skopje, we can’t even get from Drachevo to Gjorche Petrov by public transport.
Still, we have the honour and privilege of being blessed by VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM, who joined forces to outdo even those who made it to the Moon. They’ll cut down the forest so that one day Vodno can start walking. Towards Skopje.
4 Whenever people start telling me about twenty-first century standards, it sounds like they’re telling me jokes. And it’s not just about the construction frenzy and the assault on nature. We’re told the same long tales about mining concessions which would allegedly bring prosperity. They would be environmentally friendly and perfectly safe, as expected in the 21st century.
What sort of investment is it if it contaminates the very land that feeds us?
What sort of investment is it if Mount Vodno starts walking tomorrow?
And who’ll pay for these investments?
The mayors say: If we refuse to issue building permits, the state will have to pay compensation.”
But what happens if the mountain starts to slip tomorrow and the retaining walls of these powerful investors begin to give way? Who’ll pay for the damage then? Will the mayors and councillors who voted in favour reach into their own pockets? We’ve all seen them on television, crying and demanding compensation from the state for the damage to their cracked walls.
Or how about not issuing the permits now, and sending those who unlawfully granted them in the first place to prison? How about trying that for a change?
5 President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova attended the reception hosted by the French Embassy to mark Bastille Day, the national day of the French Republic. The reception took place in a restaurant on top of a multi-storey car park, one of several run by the City of Skopje, where, in the 21st century, the lifts have been out of order for months.
Anyway. The car parks aren’t really my point. Bastille Day is.
French President Emmanuel Macron spent two days celebrating the holiday in Paris. Around thirty European leaders attended, among them British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Moldovan President Maia Sandu… Also present were European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Our state leadership must have been invited to Paris because Deputy Prime Minister Bekim Sali was there. I don’t know why neither President Siljanovska-Davkova nor Prime Minister Mickoski attended.
Nor do I know what protocol dictated. It’s also not important whether the Prime Minister couldn’t postpone the Government reshuffle, or whether the President needed a rest after a demanding weekend spent at the Galichnik Wedding and the Ohrid Summer Festival. But honestly, something about it didn’t sit well with me when I saw the official group photograph outside the Élysée Palace with all those leaders around the host, while Macedonian state leadership was represented by its deputy prime minister, among all those presidents and prime ministers.
While Macron was hosting Europe’s heads of state and government in Paris, Brussels was simultaneously holding four intergovernmental conferences with four EU accession candidates – Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova. European officials even dubbed the occasion “The EU’s Super Tuesday”.
And so I come back to the story of the restaurant in Skopje, the 21st century multi-storey car park, the EU’s Super Tuesday, and Bastille Day. I felt bad. Truly. Moldovan President Maia Sandu at the Élysée Palace, and Macedonian President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova in a multi-storey car park with broken lifts.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
