1 In reference to the attack of eight thugs on MNAV, led by the head of the DUI branch in Chair, Bekim Neziri, the director Fahrudin Hamidi said it was just a tiny case of bickering like in any other company. After that, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski remarked that “M-NAV has turned into a family company,” because the president of the Syndicate and his brother work there, their father had also worked there and that’s how “they’ve become a family with conflicts, as is usual in any household.”

And how do you solve a nepotism problem in Air Traffic Control? By beating air traffic controllers in the Control Tower building while there are 28 planes in the sky.

Normal or not, physical violence within a company, just as domestic violence, is punishable by law. However, in this case, that’s not even the topic of discussion, because Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi says there was no beating, and Bekim Neziri didn’t participate in the fight.

So, from 4 January, when it was reported that thugs had stormed M-NAV, until 9 January, when the Government convened to dismiss the directors of M-NAV, the beating first turned into a tiny case of bickering, then into a family conflict, and ultimately, it turned out that a colleague had brought friends and relatives to visit their friends and relatives at the workplace in Air Traffic Control.

It’s a Christmas miracle. There was no storming, there was no beating.

So, even a plane can crash, but DUI mustn’t.

2 That’s why the Dutch ambassador, Dirk Jan Kop, went to Mala Rechica to meet with Ali Ahmeti. Since, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bujar Osmani, says, DUI is the party that talks about corruption the most.

Indeed, members of DUI are known for talking extensively about corruption. It happens during their negotiations on buying shopping malls, legalising illegal constructions in national parks, changing urban plans for residential buildings, buying hotels at ski resorts, and usurping beaches and protected natural and national treasures…

Yet, they talk about corruption the most when they accuse of anti-Albanianism whenever someone points to corruption by officials and close associates of DUI.

Therefore, the Dutch ambassador should apologise to DUI for warning its leader about the setback in the European integration processes and the unacceptable pressure on the president of the Supreme Court. We should all apologise to DUI for misinterpreting the announcement from the Dutch embassy regarding the meeting in Mala Rechica with the president of the most honest political entity in the world. However, the ones who should apologise to DUI the most are the Albanian families whose loved ones died in the disasters caused by the corruption of DUI officials.

3 The Dutch ambassador states it’s evident there’s been a setback in the European integration process in the last two years.

That period coincides with the rule of Dimitar Kovachevski. But it also coincides with the Bulgarian veto, which denies the existence of the Macedonian nation and language, stalling said European integration process, just like the French proposal that legitimises that denial.

I remember that the Dutch ambassador used to say that the veto is just one more of the many bumps on the road to the EU. As if we didn’t know who we were dealing with back home. As if we didn’t know that their veto, followed by the French proposal, would stall our European integration and that the EU would destabilise Macedonia instead of stabilising it. Not only back home, but also the foreign ambassadors labelled as anti-European all those who pointed out that accepting the Bulgarian condition for the start of the negotiations was simply unsustainable because, apart from the humiliation of the Macedonian nation and language, it enables corruption to thrive in our country, rather than the rule of law.

We didn’t say all those things out of spite. We spoke from experience. Because we knew what we were in for. We went through the same thing with Nikola Gruevski after 2008 when we faced the Greek veto on NATO. When he realised the reforms didn’t matter, that whatever the Government did wouldn’t make a difference, they got down to pillaging and hijacking the country by establishing a regime. Eventually, there was no other way, we had to replace him by taking to the streets.

4 The mess with the change of ID cards, driving licences and passports doesn’t highlight only the epic incompetence and chaos within state institutions, but it also underscores the epic lack of care of the state and state officials for their own citizens. I feel it’s even more hopeless than we think. That it’s not just the citizens they don’t care about. They don’t really care about anything.

Since, if the government and state officials did care, they’d at least try to find a solution. The problem doesn’t resolve itself. On the contrary, it gets even more complicated.

As government, they’ve been aware since 2019 that the deadline for changing personal documents is until February 2024, they’re aware that citizens have already paid for the old documents, which haven’t expired, they’re aware citizens pay double the expense and have to pay again for the new documents, they’re aware citizens are dead tired waiting to have their photos taken, to a point they start beating each other, they might even die literally waiting for hours to get their new documents, yet officials dare act all smart and funny. President Stevo Pendarovski says the Government needs to figure out a way to extend the deadline for the documents without “North,” and Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski replies that he’s actually the one who should say how to do that because he participated in the making of the Prespa Agreement and that he should call the Greek president to ensure Greece won’t be mad at us, if, this summer, we flock to Halkidiki with the old name still on our passports.

The highest state officials, whose primary responsibility was to prevent this problem from occurring, are now making all sorts of witty remarks. What would Pendarovski say to the Greek president? You know, our administration is quite small, and they had to go on winter holiday, so we didn’t finish changing the passports. And we’ll keep outsmarting each other, figuring out who’s to blame for our inability to organise ourselves.

Forget about Greece, people over here are scared out of their wits that if they don’t change their ID cards by 12 February, they won’t be able to withdraw money from the bank. And Minister of Internal Affairs Oliver Spasovski stated that people will still be able to vote in the parliamentary and presidential elections in April and May with ID cards without “North”.

Imagine if they dare to do that to us. We won’t be able to withdraw our money. But we’ll be able to vote for them. And they’re hoping to win.

5 In a TV interview, President Stevo Pendarovski, in the context of tackling corruption and the corrupt judiciary, also touched upon the US blacklists and said: “It’s not irrelevant what America thinks or doesn’t think about the rule of law, and I personally told the US ambassador that they should continue in that direction.”

How nice that Pendarovski encouraged the US ambassador for the USA to continue fighting against corruption in Macedonia. If only those responsible for prosecuting corruption in Macedonia gave a damn about it, we could be an even more strategic partner of the USA.

6 Mijalkov’s son bought Mijalkov’s apartments, which were confiscated following the verdict in the “Empire” case. Why does everyone find it strange that Mijalkov bought Mijalkov’s apartments?

I don’t know who’d find that strange, except for those who landed in Macedonia from outer space yesterday.

I don’t find it strange at all that he was able to buy them. And I won’t find it strange that, if VMRO returns to power, we’ll  end up paying damages to Mijalkov for the double expense.