1 Oh, wow, SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE got so scared of the non-affiliated citizens that they decided to change the Electoral Code of Conduct three months before the local elections. Cowardice par excellence. They saw the announcements for independent lists of mayors and councilors and decided to eliminate them right away. So, they let the Minister of Justice Bojan Maricic defend the changes in the law. It’s the same Maricic who, before coming to power, used to amuse us with non-governmental stories about European values, held trainings on civic engagement, went on and on about democracy and interpreted the Constitution for the sovereignty of citizens. And now, comfortably protected by the ruling party, he’s strutting from a position of power and says: “If the independent voters have support, they will obtain 2 percent of the registered voters in the municipality.” You don’t say! If the party doesn’t stand behind him, he won’t be able to obtain even half a signature.
Does Maricic’s boss, Zoran Zaev, remember whose votes were crucial for SDSM to come to power? With whose support did he topple a regime using only a pen? Does he remember that he barely managed to come to power, even with the support of the independent voters? Who helped him survive April 27, 2017 and push the referendum to change the name in 2018. None of this would have happened if Zaev had stayed only with his party soldiers and the clients from the public administration who changed their tune in favour of SDSM. The votes of the unaffiliated definitely meant a lot to him then. And what did Zaev do now? He sold the independent voters for a coalition with Hristijan Mickoski.
2 Stubbornness is irrational, but a very key factor in Macedonian society. Does Zaev remember who was so stubborn in 2015 to go out “every day at 6” to change Gruevski’s regime? Does he know how stubborn the voters from Centar were in the local elections in 2013 when they voted for Zernovski three times, even though he was a terrible candidate, despite the broken elevators and the voters from Pustec who were moved in there as their neighbours. Even the election of Stevo Pendarovski as president hung in the balance with such close results after the first round precisely because of the votes of the stubborn ones who decided to teach the government a lesson.
So, maybe the independent candidates won’t obtain 2 percent of the electoral roll necessary to appear on the electoral lists. Their votes probably won’t go to VMRO-DPMNE, but they will certainly not go to the account of SDSM either. Those are people who had no choice in 2016, and supported SDSM to save themselves from Gruevski and because SDSM offered them a civic option. Now, scaring people that VMRO-DPMNE will return to power no longer works. Especially not at the local level where the SDSM government has shown that it practices the same policies it used to criticize. Plus, why would they scare the unaffiliated citizens that VMRO-DPMNE would return to power, when SDSM formed a coalition with VMRO-DPMNE to silence their voices?
3 SDSM aren’t as afraid of VMRO-DPMNE as they’re afraid of the citizens, since it would be stupid to fear VMRO-DPMNE while Mickoski is their leader. And now they’re even trying to convince us that it was according to the recommendation of the OSCE / ODIHR and that those were European practices… It’s a “Mile, I have an idea” kind of situation. We’ll outwit them, we’ll change the law quickly, we’ll go on vacation, and then they’ll forget.
Alright then, since Maricic is so arrogant, acting all big and bad in front of the people who were his comrades until yesterday, let him collect signatures from 8 am to 4 pm, at civil servants who have been hired for their party merits or interventions. Even the guard who’ll ask you “where are you going” when you go there to put your signature has been hired according to someone’s party list. And then their system will crash, then they’ll go on a break, then it will be too hot for them to work, they’ll be given the day off… The only thing missing is the number of people who have tested covid-19 positive to continue to grow, so Filipce would be able to complicate the protocols without any shenanigans…
Ahh, they’ll laugh at their party headquarters, we really got them good this time, they really got carried away thinking they’d make independent lists… If they could, they would collect signatures, but they can’t. What can you do? That’s democracy for you.
What are they thinking? Bojan, I have an idea. We’ll treat them like fools, and they won’t even realize they are fools.
Perhaps, taking people for fools will bring them joy.
4At the beginning of the campaign for the local elections in September 2017, at a rally in Bitola, the leader of SDSM Zoran Zaev promised: “The time of – Hey Mile, I have an idea, let’s put a fountain here – is over.”
As for the party lackeys waiting to be hired in municipal offices, if you put the name of the neighbourhood stray dog on the ballot paper, they’d circle it. However, the most difficult thing is to have loyal supporters of the party. Zaev would be happy had he kept his supporters from 4 years ago. That would mean that his mayors had done a good job. There would be no need to smuggle them like this in a fast-tracked procedure at 40 degrees in the summer and during the campaign for local elections, which has already started.
If I were a member of SDSM, I mean a real social democrat by ideology, and not a client of the party, I’d be afraid of this kind of practicing democracy. Tomorrow, when they’ll want to change something, let them collect signatures in a complicated procedure under the watchful eye of their bosses. If you are a Democrat, then be a Democrat for everyone. You can’t practice democracy with a show of force. It’s not in vain that our people say – You can’t make something beautiful with force.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
