1 Next time you want to seek justice, when you want to file a complaint about something or report something to the inspectorates, make sure to first ask around whether the archivist responsible for receiving your request is on holiday. Or on sick leave. Or just on a break. Or perhaps she’s simply “popped out to buy something and will be right back.”
Air traffic controllers have requested an extraordinary inspection from the Labour Inspectorate to check whether the latest job advert at the state-owned enterprise Macedonian Navigation (M-NAV), which they suspect was rigged for party members, was conducted in line with the law. The people who were hired were the vice president of the VMRO-DPMNE youth wing, the husband of the director of the Central Registry, and the widow of a man convicted for the organised attack on Parliament on April 27, 2017.
The request, submitted to the Labour Inspectorate in Skopje on 18 July, was forwarded to the regional office in Kavadarci. Unfortunately, the archivist in Kavadarci was on holiday, and none of the inspectors from Kavadarci could take on the case, because the archivist hadn’t yet assigned it.
I’m really curious what exactly the inspectors are doing, not just in Kavadarci, but everywhere else, while the archivists are off to the beach? Are they just sitting around in their offices with nothing to do, simply because there are no cases to process? After all, why would they bother working, when even if they do write up a report, there’s no one to officially log it.
The Labour Inspectorate in Kavadarci is responsible for overseeing employment in Air Traffic Control because the overflight corridor happens to pass over Kavadarci. There are a lot of planes above the Tikvesh region. So, the archivist must stay up to date. Every now and then, she goes to the window and looks up at the sky.
What I’d really like to know is how the M-NAV case ended up in Kavadarci. What brilliant mind came up with that idea to keep track of which archivist is on holiday? That’s all I’m interested in, because I stopped asking “Have they no shame?” a long time ago.
2 The fact that the largest parties have forced independent civic initiatives that want to run in elections to go through the ordeal of collecting signatures and providing proof of citizenship just to form a party says everything about how much they value the voice of the people.
This is an instance of grinding down the voice of the citizens. And this time, the government is not the only one to blame for that. This harassment of independent candidates could have been prevented by the MPs of SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE immediately after the Constitutional Court struck down the provisions of the law that increased the number of signatures required to register independent candidates during the SDSM era. The MPs should have amended the law by now, in line with the recommendation of the Constitutional Court. The elections are just around the corner. However, they neither have, nor intend to, govern in the public interest.
It’s not just that party leaders refuse to hear the voice of independent citizens. Rather, they want to silence it. To make it disappear. So they could hear only the voice of “their people.” The ones who’ve chosen to hear no one else but them.
The major parties are simply setting the stage for their never-ending division of the spoils.
3 At a party gathering in Shtip, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski told the opposing parties, SDSM and DUI, to direct their questions about what he described as the “terrible and horrible case in Kochani” to Public Prosecutor Ljupcho Kocevski, because he’s one of theirs.
“All those press conference tirades about the terrible, horrible case in Kochani fall flat, along with the phony outrage, the sly digs where they pretended to seek justice,” Mickoski said, after Parliament adopted an interpellation against Kocevski, submitted by the Levica MPs and supported by VMRO-DPMNE as well.
What? Is it only SDSM and DUI who are seeking justice? By the way, I don’t even remember DUI making any statements about Kochani. Aren’t the parents of the 62 children who died and the over 200 injured in that “terrible, horrible case” seeking justice too? Are they just pretending to seek justice as well? Isn’t the public seeking justice? Or are they all “necrophiles, rodents, vultures” and whatever other filth spilled from Mickoski’s mouth about all those seeking justice for Kochani. And not only justice. People are also demanding a change in the practices of governance that, day in and day out, are laying the groundwork for the next Kochani.
Anyway, the Prime Minister has already announced how the trial over the Kochani tragedy will end. It will collapse, because it turns out the prosecutors wasn’t the right fit. He was from SDSM. We’ll wait for VMRO-DPMNE to appoint a prosecutor of their own.
4 Every day, VMRO-DPMNE MP Mile Levkov from Kochani holds press conferences blaming SDSM and DUI for the wildfires raging across the country.
Since Mile Levkov from Kochani seems to have insight into the causes of every fire in the country, I’d really like to know what insight Mile Levkov from Kochani has into the fire in Kochani.
5 Skopje Mayor Danela Arsovska has reinstated the monument to Kjoseto in front of the court buildings, which was previously removed by former mayor Petre Shilegov.
We’ve come full circle with Kjoseto. In December 2023, VMRO-DPMNE and Levica councillors in the Skopje City Council applauded as they voted in favour of Mayor Danela Arsovska’s proposal to bring Kjoseto back. VMRO-DPMNE installed Kjoseto. VMRO-DPMNE brought their mayor to power. VMRO-DPMNE blocked their mayor. VMRO-DPMNE brought Kjoseto back. Everything’s fallen neatly into place. Let’s hope VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate for Skopje wins, so they can save us from themselves.
As for SDSM, all they did was remove Kjoseto. They should have melted the monument down, made sure not a trace of it remained. But that’s SDSM for you. They have never properly finished anything they’ve started.
And what’s a normal person supposed to do, hearing that in the capital, a city that’s failing in every aspect imaginable, overflowing rubbish, no public transport, illegal construction, water supply issues, the mayor putting up a monument to a controversial historical figure clutching a dagger? You get excited when they put Kjoseto up, then you get excited when they take him down, and now it’s the third time… it’s too much for one lifetime. A normal person can’t keep up with all their nonsense. Someone has to work. So they can keep collecting their salaries. So they can carry on with their nonsense.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
