1 Is a traffic violation law worthy of convening a leaders’ meeting?
We watched yet another drama entitled “Leaders’ Meeting”. I feel these plays are becoming increasingly dull. It seems that opening a new kindergarten wasn’t on Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski’s schedule, so, to fill the day, he convened a leaders’ meeting instead. Honestly, I don’t even know why the party leaders gathered at all.
We don’t have a parliamentary crisis. VMRO-DPMNE created a crisis when it was in opposition, blocking a lot of essential laws. Now the government enjoys an absolute majority in Parliament, anything it wants to impose can be imposed without resistance. So really, why do we even have a Parliament at all? So that MPs can claim travel expenses and per diems for turning up to vote on decisions that have already been agreed.
And the fact that SDSM leader Venko Filipche chose not to attend the leaders’ meeting convened by VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski is a problem for SDSM itself. In principle, it’s always better to be present at the table where decisions are made than not to be. And yes, the leaders’ meeting may be a dull drama, but is it not foolish to voluntarily give up the role of the largest opposition party? At last while you’re still considered a leading role in the play.
But then again, why would the public concern itself with SDSM’s internal party affairs?
2 I don’t want to bother debating the law banning smoking in public spaces either. As with everything else in this country, the law itself isn’t the problem. The problem is the implementation of the law. Even with the current law, it’s not as though punishing people for smoking indoors is forbidden. Besides, we had such a law until 2017, during the previous VMRO-DPMNE government, and people complied with it.
After that they came up with amendments to the law, followed by enclosed outdoor seating areas, supposedly to prevent the hospitality industry from suffering and to protect the rights of smokers, but in reality enabling a brutal usurpation of public space. It had nothing to do with the human rights of smokers, and even less with protecting the health of non-smokers. It was a classic privatisation of our shared space, by stealing our pavements, pedestrian zones, parks, access to the entrances of the buildings where we live and work… Supposedly for summer terraces.
By the way, those makeshift nylon and plastic structures are not only ugly, but unsafe as well. And who knows whether the municipalities make any profit from them at all, how much they charge, and whether they manage to collect it.
Do we actually listen to ourselves? People, in 2026 we’re still talking about smoking in restaurants and cafés! About regular rubbish collection! About speed cameras on streets and motorways! About the treatment of stray dogs! We’re talking about public transport! About filters on chimneys! About ventilation systems in public buildings!
For God’s sake. We’re debating about toilet paper and soap in schools. Because there is none. None.
The citizens of the countries to which we move en masse and whose quality of life we envy have no idea that such issues are even up for discussion anywhere in Europe. It’s devastating that we’re discussing civilisational standards that the world we aspire to join put in place at least thirty years ago. And we’re already in the 26th year of the 21st century.
3 At the leaders’ meeting, party leaders debated whether to abolish the caretaker government, which is formed six months before parliamentary elections and was introduced in 2015 to overcome the political crisis and the blockade triggered by the publication of illegally wiretapped conversations during the government of Nikola Gruevski. The agreements were held in Przino, near Skopje, at the residence of the EU ambassador, with the strong support from the then US ambassador.
Ali Ahmeti from DUI proposed that the strategic partners who had participated in the Przino agreements should also be consulted on the abolition of the caretaker government.
What a brilliant idea. Amid all difficulties currently straining relations between the US and the EU, they should now also be burdened with our caretaker government. There’s no escaping it. Alongside the status of Greenland, the US and the EU will now be expected to resolve the status of Przino as well.
And Mickoski’s government, in addition to expressing deep concern over how events may unfold between the allies over Greenland, will appeal for a peaceful resolution of misunderstandings. And he’ll call on the US and the EU to refrain from excessive use of force.
4 At the leaders’ meeting, it became clear that politicians from the Albanian parties maintain continuity in politics. Besa leader Bilal Kasami arrived at the meeting in a BMW worth 130,000 euros. He said that it wasn’t his, but merely on loan, as the municipal car was undergoing servicing. Back in the day, Artan Grubi also drove an Audi worth about 100,000 euros, likewise not his own, but allegedly lent to him by a neighbour.
It turns out politicians have exceptionally generous friends and relatives. Perhaps one day it will be revealed how many public tenders their generosity has cost us.
Most likely not.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
