1 The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for organized crime and corruption filed an indictment against 4 people for criminal association and endangering the criminal order of the state.

The first defendant N.N. built an extension to the family house, having obtained a building permit in accordance with a valid Detailed urban plan harmonized with the General urban plan and paid for utilities, thus contributing to the municipal budget with xxx denars.

The second defendant M.M., who is the mayor of the municipality on whose territory the crime was committed, is charged with respecting the Construction Law and abusing his official position and his authorization and thus committing the crime “Doing his job conscientiously.”

The other two defendants A.A. and V.V. together with the investor of the extension and the mayor, in the capacity of responsible persons – head of the Sector of urbanism and his deputy – formed a criminal association by allowing the investor to build and pay for utilities in compliance with the law. By conscientiously executing their authority and duties, they grossly violated the Law on legalization of illegally constructed buildings and enabled the first defendant N.N. to obtain a legal construction. With these actions the criminal association insisted on systematic compliance with the Constitution, the laws and the other legal acts, and thus grossly endangered the criminal order of the state.

2  There, that’s what the prosecutor’s announcements will be like if the Law on legalization of illegally built constructions comes into force, the law which MPs from SDSM, VMRO-DPMNE and DUI have already passed together.

It’s really nice that President Stevo Pendarovski refused to sign the Law and returned it to the Assembly. But even as a cynical optimist I have no hopes that the same MPs won’t pass it again. How long has it been since something has been passed with 72 votes “for” in the Assembly? Did you really think SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE would reach an agreement on the vaccines, the support for the healthcare in the middle of a pandemic, the package of measures for the economy and citizens to overcome the Covid crisis, the severance pay for the soldiers…? No way. Regarding the general policy “The honourable are fools, the dishonourable are smart and that’s why honour should be punished” and based on the historic statement Prime Minister Zaev made in 2019, in Ohrid – “Even if it’s unlawful, no can do is not an option, we’ll find a way” the government and the opposition are in accord.

By consensus they passed a law for non-compliance with the Constitution and the laws. This time even Hristijan Mickoski proved cooperative, and his MPs approved the solution proposed by the government. They even contributed to the debate. The guys from VMRO proposed amendments, the guys from SDSM approved them. A parliamentary heaven and all that. Everything’s in the spirit of the political dialogue and the Jean Monnet process in the Assembly.

With the approved amendments of VMRO-DPMNE all lawsuits against the ones who built illegally will stop. So, those who broke the law will now be able to sue the state as the injured party. The state will have to pay them compensation for prosecuting them for having built illegally.

Whose money will the state use to pay the ones who didn’t obey the laws? Naturally, the money of all those who did obey the laws. The money of the honourable must be spent wisely. To reward the dishonourable.

3 The most exciting part will be the moment when the law is enforced, especially if the illegal constructions are in national parks and protected areas near water sources. The Government dispelled all worries and doubts. They’re saying “we won’t legalize anything and everything.” Instead, “in order to legalize a construction, for instance in a protected area, they should be issued a permit by a competent body, a ministry or another institution, provided the construction does not endanger that area.”

Which are those “competent institutions?” Those are the same institutions which have given way to illegal construction so far. You’re not going to bring the institutions from Norway, are you? Do the investors have Norwegian conscience? Why would anyone build in a protected area for water sources in Macedonia if they don’t have Norwegian conscience? Perhaps, a Norwegian ministry will control the implementation of conscience of the investors, the local and central government in Macedonia, so “anything and everything won’t be legalized.”

Too bad Norway isn’t in the EU. Otherwise, the implementation of the Law on legalization of illegally constructed buildings would be an excellent twinning project and another step towards the EU standards.

4 That phrase “competent institutions” looks nice written on paper. As nice as the words of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the fight against corruption Ljupcho Nikolovski. For instance, when he says that he had a conversation with the mayor of Struga, Ramiz Merko, about the “necessity of enforcing the measures of the Plan for the fight against corruption which relate to the local self-government,” it sounds so serious that you immediately think there’s no corruption.

The Deputy Prime Minister and the mayor “agreed that the battle against corruption must include all social actors, and the collaboration with the local government is crucial”.  Ljupcho and Ramiz will join forces to fight against crime. Since the mayor of Struga is not the same “competent institution” that announced: “We will build, and not only do we build but we will finish building everything. I couldn’t care less about these NGOs from Ohrid attacking Struga.”

5 Unlike Merko who “couldn’t care less” about the illegal constructions in Struga, his fellow party member Artan Grubi cares a lot about everyone else. So when he’s not busy washing the cobblestones in the Skopje bazaar, he cares about Georgia to reform their judiciary, the prosecution and the security structures following our model. Grubi told that to Georgian President  Salome Zurabishvili, who was on an official visit. It’s the same model according to which 214 foreign criminals were issued legal forged Macedonian passports by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The same model according to which a Special Prosecutor’s Office had to be created because the normal Prosecutor’s Office refused to meddle in their own work. According to that model the special prosecutor ended up in prison for corruption of one of the suspects in one of her cases.

In what world does Artan Grubi live? What do you mean what world? Well, in the world of the First Deputy Prime Minister that he himself created.

Just like Ljupcho Nikolovski. He built himself a world of anticorruption and now lives in his world of the fight against corruption.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski