1 Why is Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski boasting about laying new foundations on the rubble he inherited a year ago, when his own foundations rest on illegal construction? Here’s a prime example. The Mayor of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, the very candidate he backed for mayor of the capital four years ago, is now handing them documents on organised crime in the Municipality of Chair on a platter.

It’s true that Arsovska has completely neglected the city, that we have no public transport, that we’re choking on rubbish, that she has a vile temper, and a whole list of other things that could earn her the title of worst mayor in Skopje’s history. It’s also true that we have no idea why she’s suddenly motivated to expose crime and the urban mafia, now, right at the end of her term. It’s also true that by hurling insults back and forth with the mayor of Chair, Visar Ganiu, over who’s the bigger criminal, they’re trivialising crime. But does any of that even matter?

The fact is, there is crime. The fact is, reports have been filed. And the fact is, there’s been no response so far.

Here’s evidence with documents showing backdated construction permits. A residential building completed in 2024, filed for legalisation in 2011. When the media reported on countless residential buildings in Chair being legalised through forgery, you ignored them. Now you’re ignoring your own mayor too. You keep passing the buck over who’s the competent authority to demolish illegal buildings. Well, for God’s sake, if she won’t send in the machinery because it’s not under her jurisdiction, you do it. You’ve got the State Construction Inspectorate. Outsmart her. Steal her thunder.

As for the Prosecutor’s Office – what on earth are they waiting for? Are they waiting for a fire at the Municipality to burn the documents, just like the ones that went up in flames at the “Macedonian Post” directorate and in the Environmental Inspectorate?

When VMRO-DPMNE was in opposition, they went on and on about how Zoran Zaev didn’t have the guts to say a word to Ali Ahmeti. Unlike now, when VMRO-DPMNE is in power, and Mickoski doesn’t have the guts to say a word to a single mayor in a municipality where thousands of citizens are living in buildings that are illegal constructions.

Well, if the government’s ignoring the mayor and the media, then let them at least help the citizens living in unsafe buildings because they were cheated by the mafia. And let them start asking the real questions: How did they pay for those flats? In cash? Did they pay the 11-year-old investor, as the mayor claims, with a bag of money for a snack during day care? Who took the money? And where did he keep it? In his locker. Only his locker didn’t have a butterfly or a teddy bear sticker on it. It had a drawing of a building.

There are plenty of unanswered questions the government needs to answer in the spirit of the “historic fight against corruption” and the announcements that “the best is yet to come”.

2 And then we wonder how the tragedy in Kochani happened. Well, this is exactly how it happened. A legalised illegal building with a legalised nightclub, claimed 62 young lives and left 200 others injured. We’ll mourn for a week, we’ll sympathise with the Prime Minister, who says it was the hardest day of his life, we’ll hold moving press conferences, and we’ll boast that we’re laying foundations from “scratch.”

Here’s how we’re laying the foundations. With thousands of illegal buildings no knows how safe they are turned into flats, pubs, hotels, restaurants, fast food joints, shops, nightclubs, stores…

The nightclub in Kochani was an illegal construction.

3 And the Prime Minister, who says that his Government is laying the foundations of change, might want to ease up on the poetry as he marks his first year in office, which he calls “a year we will remember – as the first one in which a new era began.”

First things first, has he set aside money in the budget for the one billion euros’ worth of crumbling plaster? He should stop reminding us how things were during the seven years of SDSM rule before he took power. Because, once we start looking back, we’ll also remember that those 7 years were preceded by 11 years in which VMRO-DPMNE wiretapped over 20,000 people, stole billions, and captured the state. Plus, he forgets to mention that during those seven years, VMRO-DPMNE stormed the Parliament, blocked financial aid for the most vulnerable during the height of the Covid crisis, and launched a series of other blockades against the common good, out of sheer spite.

SDSM fell from power due to public discontent because it only built upon what VMRO-DPMNE had been doing. Not only because it failed to change the way of doing politics, but because it cemented it. It crushed even the faintest hope of those who placed their trust in it.

VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM may not have the same ideology, but their understanding of politics, governance, and accountability to citizens is the same. Whatever they claim, their actions show they care only about their loyal supporters.

Until the official start of the upcoming local elections campaigns, there will be public debates. Let’s not call them election rallies, we wouldn’t want to violate the Electoral Code. And now that VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM have joined forces to eliminate independent civil initiatives from running, they’re waltzing ahead without a care in the world. It’s really convenient that the local elections are held in autumn. Just in time for the party-backed mayoral candidates to use our money to organise a “cultural summer,” with “mega concerts,” which is in fact a euphemism for a pre-election campaign.

You know what mayors say: “Everything for my people.” As for “your” people? I couldn’t care less…

4 Precisely because Mickoski is banging his own drum that history began with him, the largest parties in power and in opposition can’t reach an agreement on what to do with the Bulgarian veto and how to unblock the country’s path to the EU.

The government even spins it as a success that the vote in the European Parliament confirmed that Bulgaria isn’t just interested in constitutional amendments to include a few hundred Bulgarians, but also in denying the existence of the Macedonian language and identity.

And who exactly gets to claim credit for that success? Is it a success for the government? Or perhaps for us, because they’ve proven their point. As if we didn’t already know that. I myself have written that in this very column countless times. I’m still one of the biggest opponents of that damned French Proposal, which, rather than opening the path to the EU, it closed it.

But when it comes to Macedonia, Bulgarians, no matter which party they belong to, are fighting in the EU over it down to the last comma. They’ve passed countless resolutions and documents against Macedonia and the Macedonian people by consensus in their Assembly, they’ve mobilised every sister and non-sister parties in the European Union. Meanwhile, back home, VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM are fighting over who’s the bigger, prouder Macedonian.

We’re watching the same old story unfold, just like the name dispute with Greece. Once again, it’s not about solving the problem, but about who gets to solve it. Who gets the glory.

Meanwhile, 216,000 Macedonian citizens have registered as Bulgarians just to get Bulgarian passports and enter the EU. And every September, there are over 1,000 fewer students starting first grade.

Yet the parties, preoccupied with their interests, can’t even recognise, let alone agree on, what constitutes a common national interest.

5 At the NATO Summit in The Hague, President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova thought that when she shook hands with US President Donald Trump, she also had a brief exchange with US Vice President JD Vance, but it turned out it was actually Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

But never mind. What matters is that Siljanovska-Davkova recognised Trump and told him that she was the President of Macedonia. She later remarked that his reaction was interesting, when she mentioned Kennedy to him, she noticed his body language. That’s a clear sign that Macedonian-American relations are growing ever stronger when it comes to meetings at the highest level. President Gjorge Ivanov boasted that Barack Obama winked at him.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski