1 If you told someone, they wouldn’t believe you. The state has been tracking cows in Kriva Palanka and the surrounding villages, farms and forests for 15 years, and still can’t catch them. To make matters worse, some of the cows have crossed into Bulgaria. The police have even deployed a drone to locate them. And just like that, a serious domestic issue has become an international one. The cows have breached the Schengen barrier and the new entry-exit system, so they can’t be logged to check whether they’ve exceeded the 90 days within a 180-day period in the EU, unlike us, people who do get logged.

Residents whose crops and yards have been destroyed by the cows for the past 15 years protested in front of the Kriva Palanka Town Hall. The municipality issued a statement that the protest, which was also attended by Mayor Sashko Mitovski, took place in a “peaceful and dignified atmosphere”. So, there were no clashes between the parties involved.

For the residents, this is a matter of livelihood. They’re asking the state to allow them to cultivate their land in peace, to protect their property, and to live from their labour with dignity. And above all, they’re asking the state to establish order and accountability. Are they asking too much?

And the state? The state can’t deal with a herd of cows. Let alone the bull-headed among us.

2 Riding on that momentum, once the government resolves the issue with the cattle, it will focus on restructuring the European Union.

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski has begun speaking about the possibility of our joining the EU in 2027, alongside Ukraine, Montenegro and Albania, but without voting rights. In other words, we would be rushed in as part of some peace package and only then expected to carry out the reforms. He presents this in the most serious tone at public appearances.

First, the founding treaties of the European Union didn’t envisage a form of membership without voting rights.

Second, any change to those treaties would require unanimous approval from all 27 EU member states, including Bulgaria.

And that’s where we return to square one. Both in terms of full membership and of any alternative form of membership in the EU.

Mickoski says that they, “as responsible politicians, must anticipate, process and develop a strategy for everything they hear in relevant places from relevant people.”

So, this entire discussion boils down to a series of what-ifs. So far, he’s failed to “show the real truth about Macedonia to the world through defiance”, as he said at the beginning of his mandate, and he hasn’t convinced his friends in the EU to revise the French proposal. Even the fact that we’re within Trump’s perimeter hasn’t helped us. Our most powerful strategic ally has left us without an ambassador in Skopje to keep an eye on what we’re doing. The creative solutions in diplomacy President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova keeps talking about have yet to produce any results. So either Mickoski has decided to prepare the VMRO-DPMNE electorate for the likelihood that, sooner or later, he’ll have to make constitutional amendments to include Bulgarians in the Preamble in order to start the EU accession talks, or, simply, as has been the case until now, he’s buying himself time. And in doing so, he’s wasting everyone’s time.

Don’t get too excited too soon. Don’t get your hopes up. No one knows when the war in Ukraine will end.

And the Prime Minister will no doubt come up with a new issue next week to keep us entertained.

As for these responsible politicians who anticipate and process even the rumours in Brussels and develop strategies around them, the question is simple: Do those who are now in power, elected with an overwhelming majority of votes, actually want us to enter the EU or not? There is no wrong answer. Yes or no? If they don’t – then what do we do next? Above all, they owe their voters an explanation.

And on that note– let’s bring that topic to a close.

3 It’s been only 14 months since Artan Grubi, former Deputy Prime Minister in the SDSM-DUI Government and a suspect in the embezzlement of state funds, went to Kosovo to get something done. Now he’s back. He appeared at the border cheerful and smiling. He was sent special police cameramen, for Instagram reels, for collecting likes.

I read the daily statements issued by SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE and I don’t understand why they’re accusing one another. Grubi is suspected of something that took place while he was part of a coalition government led by SDSM. He then left the country and has now returned, entirely legally, through a border crossing, while VMRO-DPMNE is in power. Only DUI welcomed his return. And, frankly, among all the parties mentioned, I can’t really figure out who the positive character is supposed to be in this story.

Commenting on Artan Grubi’s return to the country, VMRO-DPMNE MP Antonijo Miloshoski said that “no country will indefinitely shelter a fugitive who is on the US blacklist.” Has Miloshoski forgotten that their former leader, Nikola Gruevski, is also on the US blacklist? Or is he announcing his return as well?

Artan Grubi, who went to Kosovo to get something done, has been on the US blacklist since December 2024. Whereas Gruevski, who fled to the European Union, has been on the US blacklist since April 2022.

When Artan Grubi left the country, he crossed the border properly identified, like any other citizen, using a passport or ID card. He returned in precisely the same manner. Using a passport or ID card at the border crossing.

I wonder, how would Nikola Gruevski return? Would he apply for a travel document bearing the name “North” at the Macedonian embassy in Budapest? Or would someone help him cross the border hidden in the boot of a car?

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski