Columns
A CELEBRATION LIKE NO OTHER
How much brain power does it take to both condemn and justify the desecration of the Macedonian national flag during the celebration of Albanian Flag Day? The opposition DUI...
HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE
How will we wash our name clean after bringing the incompetent Danela Arsovska into power as mayor of Skopje? By putting citizens through so much trouble that they’ll think...
MAINTAINING THE STYROFOAM
Our lives in are stuck in a vicious circle of seasonal topics. They’re always the same. It's November, so, of course, we'll start talking about pollution. Once the ski seasons...
OPTIMISM ON THE SIDELINES
Gosh, just listen to the optimism Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski is spreading after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the European Political...
LET’S GO TO THE DISCO
“Sanja Bozhinovska is a greater Macedonian than all of you combined,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said from the parliamentary rostrum when asked whether he knew that the...
BARON AND LADY
The New Year is just around the corner, followed closely by Christmas, and with the holidays comes another round of pardons from President Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova. Let’s...
CLUB ACADEMY
Now, what? Prime Minister Mickoski says that he’s facing a dilemma over whether to even send a letter to the EU proposing ways to unblock the negotiation process. He recently...
A LETTER TO NOWHERE
The government has an idea how to unblock the EU negotiations. However, it’s in no hurry to act. Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced that “they would address and work...
100 DAYS AND 90 MINUTES
Let this weekend pass, and with any luck, the razzle-dazzle of “100 days of government” will finally come to a close. Fingers crossed, starting Monday, VMRO-DPMNE and VLEN will...
AND NOW WHAT?
After it became even more certain that Albania will continue its negotiations with the European Union without waiting for Macedonia to include Bulgarians in the Constitution,...
A PIECE OF HIS MIND IN VAIN
Wow, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski really gave Ursula von der Leyen a piece of his mind during a lunch in Brussels. He defended the national interests without lowering...
A SERIOUS INCIDENT
I don’t even want to imagine the scale of disaster two planes colliding would cause. Especially, over a populated area… The aviation authorities have launched an investigation...
A TRUE GENTLEMAN
On the eve of Independence Day, September 8, I was reminded of an interview with the late Ratka Dimitrova that she gave to our news outlet in 2016, when we marked the 25th...
WE KNOW HOW IT WORKS
How does offering and accepting bribes work? You don’t know? How could you not know, everyone does. That’s what Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski says. He claimed that someone...
A WEDDING PROCESSION
It’s alarming to see how many more police officers, inspectors, shift supervisors, and customs officers will be fined or dismissed by the time these guys from the “VLEN”...
NOTEBOOKS, SCHMOTEBOOKS
It’s disheartening when a supreme judge and a member of the Council of Public Prosecutors accept a bribe of 15,000 euros from a defendant to manipulate a court case in his...
VIP TREATMENT
Since Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has gone on holiday, it must mean that things are not as bleak as we’d think regarding the defence of the state’s integrity and...
THE FOURTH REPUBLIC
Holidays are often accompanied by holiday speeches. Usually, they paint a picture of an imaginary future. It will be fulfilled, we’ll do this, we’ll find a way, and we’ll make...
AN AMNESIA PILL
After the statement by SDSM leader Venko Filipche, acknowledging that during the campaign they realised the mistake they had made with the amendments to the Criminal Code, which...
A DIPLOMATIC PASSPORT
So, it could be done after all. In a crisis situation, such as the current forest fires, the state can coordinate all institutions in a timely manner to intervene effectively....
TASHMARUNISHTA IN WASHIGTON
Will someone please make the Prime Minister some mint tea, for crying out loud? He went to Washington to commemorate the 75th anniversary of NATO, sat at the same table with 31...
LIBERATE THE LIBERATORS
It’s great that the Government has decided to abolish the economic director positions at the Skopje clinics. The only step remaining is to actually abolish them. After a dozen...
A GENTLEMEN’S AGREEMENT
It’s a familiar state. However, this time, we don’t refer to it as a national disaster simply because VMRO-DPMNE is in power. After winning the elections, they are constantly...
WATER EXPERTS
The European Union will start accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova on June 25. Good for them. They don’t have such big problems with good neighbours like we do with...
MARHSALL PLAN
Our entire country is a representative sample that could be used for a case study in declining jurisdiction. We could travel the world, offering training sessions to other...
IT’S A GOOD THING IT STINKS
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...
THE SILENCE OF THE BASHED HEADS
Well, when it comes to the election of Afrim Gashi as the President of the Assembly, I don’t know if we should see it as an act of repentance by VMRO-DPMNE for their attack on...
HALKIDIKI AND THESSALONIKI
Let’s enjoy the long holiday weekend. I mean, the fight over the name can totally wait, right? Macedonian literacy is being celebrated in Greece. Could there be a more fitting...
IN THAT CASE, HOW ABOUT WE BRING BACK FYROM
The glory of our new president, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, was short-lived. It lasted only three or four hours. The same statesmen, diplomats and officials who had previously...
TRUE FRIENDS
In that case, how about we bring VMRO back? Congratulations. At this point, analysing how and why SDSM suffered its greatest electoral defeat in history is just a waste of...
MONEY TREE
With five days until the parliamentary elections and the second round of presidential elections, it seems irrelevant to me to analyse who said what at the rallies, how...
ALAS, MY RED SOUL
After the disastrous result of SDSM in the first round of the presidential elections, where the difference between Gordana Siljanovska – Davkova and Stevo Pendarovski is 180,000...
MURTI AND KURTI
Everyone will get a day off. So everyone would be able go to the elections. God, what a decision. The Wednesdays when the elections will be held have been declared non-working...
LICENCE TO STEAL
The consistent policy of rewarding bandits and punishing taxpayers continues in Macedonia. The European Commission demands that the state return 2.2 million euros within 30 to...
SORRY FOR UPSETTING YOU
The most interesting part in the televised leadership duel between Dimitar Kovachevski and Hristijan Mickoski occurred when the lottery girl Marjana Stanojkovska appeared on...
A BATTLE FOR LOOSE PRODUCTS
I don’t know if it’s because Macedonia is small, so we all seem to know each other in some way, or if it’s because of the fatigue from the three-decade-long transition and the...
AN ABSURD TURN OF EVENTS
The U.S. State Department blacklisted the mayor of Karposh and presidential candidate Stevcho Jakimovski because “he was involved in corrupt acts, including using his official...
TOMORROW HAS COME
The Registry Office apologised to the mayor of Karposh municipality, Stevcho Jakimovski, for issuing a death certificate to his son and daughter-in-law instead of a marriage...
ANOTHER NIGHT, ANOTHER CRITERION DOWN
In the presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 April and 8 May, people will be able to vote with an expired ID card or passport, provided that their validity has expired...
DOWN THE DRAIN
The pre-election campaign has kicked off with parties sowing fear. SDSM is scaring us that VMRO might return. VMRO is scaring us that SDSM would stay in power. DUI doesn’t see...
A PASSPORT SANDWICH
The additional Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Mitko Bojmacliev, embarked on a journey to the Bogorodica border crossing in the middle of the night to personally welcome the...
AT THE READY
The highlight of my week was a photo from the Macedonian embassy in Brussels. Technical Prime Minister Talat Xhaferi visited the EU headquarters. To strengthen the country’s...
“DONKEY DESK” DETENTION
The elections are approaching. The parties are commissioning polls about their popularity, they’re lifting their own spirits, they’re bidding on the number of voters and...
STATE ARREST
The judicial precautionary measure – confiscating the travel documents of suspects and those accused of a crime – has started to lose its meaning. Starting from 13 February,...
DEFEAT AS A VICTORY
Twenty-four elementary students and 26 high school students from Shtip didn’t show up at school in the second semester. They moved abroad with their parents. It’s not that the...
THE TIME IS COMING
The fact VMRO-DPMNE states it will participate with ministers in the technocratic government but won’t vote for the Government, as stupid as it may sound, is not inexplicable...
DOUBLE EXPENSE
In reference to the attack of eight thugs on MNAV, led by the head of the DUI branch in Chair, Bekim Neziri, the director Fahrudin Hamidi said it was just a tiny case of...
HAVE A SAFE FLIGHT
When you read the statement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the storming of the state company M-NAV at Skopje Airport, you’d think that it’s an everyday announcement...
JUSTICE FOR KJOSETO
2023 ends the same way it started, not very optimistically. With the same news that serves as a testament to the ongoing disaster in the judiciary, justice, impunity, corruption, the tool for equity...
NEW YEAR’S BULL
The 350,000 euros government campaign, titled “European future, closer than ever,” has started, and I still haven’t been able to attend a policy presentation to finally...