1 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 position to interfere with urban development and procurement processes to benefit himself and his associates.” In response, he filed a criminal complaint against an unknown perpetrator who snitched on him to the Americans to damage him politically.

U.S. Ambassador Angela Aggeler repeated for the hundredth time that “if evidence of corruption can be found in Washington, then a good prosecutor should be able to find it here.”

According to the Macedonian law, the person receiving the bribe isn’t the only guilty one, but also the person giving the bribe. And since the Americans are informing us who received the bribe, then it shouldn’t be challenging for a good prosecutor to find out who gave the bribe. Particularly in the case of the mayor of Karposh, the buildings that are destroying the municipality due to his interfering in urban planning, as the Americans say “to benefit himself and his associates,” weren’t built by themselves. There are suspicions of a criminal network operating on multiple levels – from those who voted in the Municipality, those who signed the first approval, the second approval, those who oversaw the building’s commissioning, those who bought apartments in those buildings and under which conditions, is that person a government official, which party he is from, and whether the constructor made contributions to the party of the esteemed tenants…

But, look at that, Stevcho has now added to the workload of the Prosecutor’s Office. Instead of dealing with the State Department’s credible information regarding his corruption and that of his associates, they’ll now have to investigate whether someone snitched on him and why.

And just like that, the significance of the American blacklist in Macedonia took an absurd turn of events.

2 This is a country where the standard procedure to get something done within a state institution is to give bribes. This is a country where citizens pay at least twice, once for the salaries of the state or municipal officials, and then once more under the principle of “cash in and we’ll get it done.” That’s why, all pre-election promises from parties that don’t genuinely commit to tackling corruption are completely worthless. At the same time, we should be careful not to be deceived by their empty words on tackling corruption, even if they promise to appoint not just one, but two deputy prime ministers for good governance.

I know who I won’t be voting for. However, I don’t see anyone persuading me who to vote for either. I see how the ruling parties behave. I see how the other parties behave when they’re in opposition, I remember very well how they were like when they were in power in the past and how they currently govern some certain municipalities.

To make a choice, there needs to be a viable offer. At least for now – there seems to be none.

The campaign hasn’t officially started, but what’ve seen so far boils down to – look how bad the others are. What about you? How good are you?

3 It doesn’t look like someone has decided to finally dismantle the network of party leeches that are sucking the state’s blood. On the contrary, parties have joined forces to further strengthen their monopoly on governance. They are the ones who are important, along with their lackeys. The citizens aren’t.

While we’re dealing with the passport crisis, registration plate changes, American blacklists, and who said what to the political opponents, the biggest blow to democracy during the rule of the SDSM and DUI coalition went almost unnoticed. In a single night, MPs from the ruling SDSM and DUI, and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE united, and through an urgent procedure, amended the Electoral Code to raise the threshold for collecting signatures for independent electoral lists. The first time they tried to do that, two years ago, there was uproar, and they failed. But now, taking advantage of the crisis with the validity of ID cards for voting, they smuggled this article in the most devious and most rotten manner, a move which will almost completely eliminate the voice of citizens who don’t want to align with any political party.

You’d think, the Assembly is ineffective. And you’d be wrong because they spring into action when they want to get rid of what troubles them the most – making sure no one interferes with their “one for me, one for you” agenda.

57 independent lists with candidates for councillors in 40 municipalities participated in the local elections in 2021. In total, they collected 56 thousand votes. They emerged as the fourth-largest political force. Only VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM and DUI had more votes than them. All other parties were behind them.

Now, those potential 56,000 votes have been suppressed. It’s now easier to collect 1,000 signatures to register a party than 3,000 – 4,000 signatures to participate in elections as a non-party entity.

In this country, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to be a citizen who wishes to contribute some of his time and knowledge without expecting someone to promise him employment in return, solely for the sake of the community. It’s simply not worth it anymore.

The easiest thing to do is to join a party, owe them big time, or as our saying goes “put your ass up for rent,” raise your hand where and when you’re asked to, receive a salary along with the bribes, with the party protecting you.

During the time when VMRO-DPMNE was in power, there were many brutal attacks on democracy. However, SDSM seems to have forgotten that they came to power precisely with the support of the votes of the citizens who trusted their words “Let this evil never happen again.” The way they’re self-centred and carried away by power and the fear they might lose that power, I don’t think they even realise the historic opportunity they’ve wasted.

4 The municipality of Tetovo conducted an inspection at the Museum of the Tetovo Region, where, after 19 years, the busts of national heroes of the anti-fascist struggle, Todor Cipovski – Medzan and Gjoce Stojchevski – Ambarche, were placed in the courtyard of the Memorial Complex of the Communist Party of Macedonia. Until 2005, these busts were placed in the city Square, but when its renovation began, they were removed with a promise that once the reconstruction was completed, they would be returned. 19 years had passed, various mayors from DUI, DPA and Besa took office, but the busts of these anti-fascists hadn’t been returned in Tetovo’s square.

In a town notorious for hundreds of illegal constructions, suffocating in rubbish and illegal landfills, lacking a consistent water supply, witnessing unauthorised deforestation on Shar Mountain, the swelling of River Pena due to uncleared canals, illegal constructions popping up at Popova Shapka every single day, the municipal government sent five inspectors to deal with the busts of the national heroes from the Second World War.

Why? Do the busts of anti-fascists bother them? Why? Is it because they were killed by the Ballists[1] in 1955?

Nothing should surprise us anymore in this wonderful Macedonia. In a country where Bulgarian fascists are portrayed as administrators, why wouldn’t Ballists fascists be hailed as freedom fighters?

 

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski

[1] Translator’s Note: The Balli Kombëtar (literally National Front) was an Albanian nationalist, collaborationist, and anti-communist resistance movement during the Second World War.