1 All right, is there anyone in the country who’ll punish the war profiteering that’s done with food and fuel? I don’t expect the Government to just condemn the act of artificially creating a shortage of meat, flour, fuel… I don’t expect the Government to just condemn the spread of panic. I expect the Government to catch the merchants, hand them over to the judicial authorities and the court to punish them.
We live in poverty. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will raise prices over here, as is the case all over the world. And you can’t be mad at the citizens who panicked and rushed to empty the supermarkets and fill their tanks with fuel, since they’re exposed to a lot of psychological stress because of the war in Europe. But then again, is it really that difficult to punish even one of those who deliberately withdrew products before the price freeze was over? Is it really that difficult to find at least one of those who deliberately didn’t serve petrol, waiting for the new price so they could make more money? They shut down night clubs where they found young people without Covid certificates, but won’t even try to prosecute all those who threatened the stability of the country. They can’t shut down a single petrol station. They’ll keep cashing in on the situation.
The Minister of Economy says that supermarkets deliberately withdrew products. The president of the Energy Regulatory Commission says that petrol stations deliberately didn’t serve petrol. Are they government officials who are supposed to stop the profiteering or a singers association? What’s the use of the statements of Kreshnik Bekteshi and Marko Bislimovski, when we didn’t hear if anyone’s been punished, if anyone’s shop has been shut down, if anyone had their work licence revoked. No one will end up in court.
Let’s imagine they’ll launch some sort of operation to punish the war profiteers. First, the Prosecution will start a preliminary investigation. It will last for months. Then they’ll start an investigation. That too will last for months. Then they’ll press charges. Then it will take the court months to review the charges. Then the trial will begin. Then a juror will retire. Then there’ll be no translation into Albanian. Then the power of attorney of the lawyers will be revoked. Then the verdict will travel from one building to another for months. Then, we’ll wait for a couple of years for the Court of Appeal to decide whether the verdict is legally binding. Until then, who knows which new world order we’ll be under. Who knows whether we’ll be alive by that time. Considering how fast justice is in Macedonia, there’ll be a legally binding verdict for the war profiteers when the nuclear winter ends.
2 The war is here, just two borders away, the economic crisis is getting worse, but that won’t stop the Assembly from debating on Fadil Zendeli for three days. As if they’re living on another planet. For three days VMRO-DPMNE defended Fadil from being dismissed in the Committee on Elections and Appointments. For three days the Assembly couldn’t adopt the Declaration condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, because Fadil didn’t want to surrender and VMRO didn’t want to give him away.
Hristijan Mickoski, during one of his reports to the mayors in Gevgelija, accused Stevo Pendarovski and Dimitar Kovacevski by saying: “They want to divide our people over something that is happening thousands of kilometres away from Macedonia. So the people wouldn’t think of the poverty they have sunk into…”
As if Putin launched a hundred-thousand-strong army to invade another country, just to enable Kovachevski to daze our people with the war in Ukraine. And that if necessary, he’d press the button just to help Kovachevski not grant Mickoski early parliamentary elections.
It’s not surprising that Mickoski is saying all that. It’s surprising that there are still people who believe him.
3 Ukraine requested immediate accession to the European Union. Moldova, Georgia and Kosovo have also applied for membership.
Hold up. Wait a minute. There’s an order of things. How will you let Ukraine into the EU, when we still haven’t resolved the dispute over Goce Delchev with Bulgaria? First Goce, then Ukraine. First the past, then the future of the EU.
And what about the present? Our politicians should now be a pain in the neck for the leaders of EU member states, pointing out how harmful it is for the European peace and the future of Europe that for the third year in a row they’ve been harassing us with the nationalistic demands of Bulgaria. They should be persistent, at least as persistent as Frckovski was in his pursuit of an ambassadorial post in America, because if he couldn’t get Washington, then New York would do, and use every opportunity to remind them how dangerous it is for Europe that the selfish interests of the EU member states have left a black hole in the Balkans.
Is it possible that Kovachevski and his ministers weren’t touched at all by the statement of the EU Ambassador David Gere that one shouldn’t make comparisons of the conditions set by Russia on Ukraine and the ones set by Bulgaria on Macedonia? What? Will the comparison between the Russian and the Bulgarian politics be seen as an obstacle for us to start the accession talks? The fact that we compare the Declaration of the Bulgarian Assembly from 2019 and the memorandum of the Bulgarian Government explaining the veto that Macedonian language doesn’t exist and that until 1944 these two countries had a common history, and that Macedonians were invented by Tito, with Putin’s explanations of the invasion, that “Lenin is the author and architect of Ukraine” and that “it is part of our history” and that “Russians and Ukrainians are one people, but Ukrainians have been brainwashed”.
The statements of Bulgarian politicians about Macedonia shouldn’t be compared with Putin’s statements about Ukraine. They are the same. Although, EU Ambassador Gere disapproves of making such comparisons, because “in Ukraine we see cities being bombarded by the Russian army”.
It’s true. It’s not the same. Bulgarians aren’t bombarding us. But, if you cherish the wet imperialistic dreams of San Stefano, nothing is impossible. Especially in the Balkans.
4 The German embassy caught Macedonian citizens who applied for a work visa with forged certificates in German language.
The officials at the embassy surely know that couple of years ago, here, there were candidates for prosecutors who applied with forged certificates in English language. They’ve surely heard that in Macedonia there are legally forged passports and driving licences. Or that, Macedonian citizens don’t find it strange if someone wants to cheat the Macedonian state with forged documents. However, they must have been surprised that someone had thought of cheating the German state. Hence, the extremely kind announcement posted on their Facebook page, in which they address the visa applicants as follows:
“Please note that the German embassy does not accept forged language certificates in visa procedures. Should you submit a forgery, your application will not only be rejected, but you will also be registered in the inter-institutional Visa Alert File.”
So, let’s translate that into Macedonian for the citizens who find it normal to submit a forged document in a state institution. We don’t want to offend you by saying you’re stupid, so we’ll kindly tell you – We are not stupid, nor are we corrupt, we will catch you and those who have issued those certificates and put you on a black list for Germany. It’s your call.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
