1 Our lives in are stuck in a vicious circle of seasonal topics. They’re always the same. It’s November, so, of course, we’ll start talking about pollution. Once the ski seasons starts, we’ll talk about how ruined Popova Shapka is. In February, the UNESCO report will arrive, and we’ll debate how much we’ve destroyed Ohrid, summer will come and we’ll be searching for “more beds” and protest about the lack of “elite tourism” there, meanwhile, stubble fields will be set on fire, followed by illegal landfills, then the forests and in the blink of an eye, November will right around the corner, and pollution will be back on the agenda.

Every day, when we wake up, it’s like we’re seeing what’s happening to us for the first time. And, once again, we’re surprised that Skopje, Tetovo, and Bitola are suffocating, that the Shapka ski centre is closed, that Ohrid is being destroyed, that stubble fields and illegal landfills are on fire.

For over thirty years, there’s been nothing to shake us out of that vicious circle. Half the country was on fire this summer. How long did that memory last? Did anyone actually do something about it? No. We’ll be surprised all over again next year.

2 Apparently, Minister of Culture Zoran Ljutkov was also surprised during his visit to the Macedonian National Theatre (MNT). He blamed the previous government of neglecting the maintenance of the facility, which cost 40 million euros.

Ljutkov seems to have forgotten that his party, VMRO-DPMNE, is not in power for the first time. The theatre, which he himself “doesn’t say that there were no flaws in construction,” was in a disastrous state right from its opening in 2013. Since then, buckets have been placed in the middle of the lobby to catch water dripping from the ceiling terrace. There are sandbags around the theatre to prevent the basements from flooding if it starts raining. Performances have been cancelled to avoid the risk of actors being electrocuted. It’s not that the substandard worth 40 million euros wasn’t maintained. That building is simply a rabbit hole.

The previous government, the one led by SDSM, didn’t maintain the Styrofoam. They weren’t any good and that’s why they failed in the elections. That’s why VMRO-DPMNE won. They must have now allocated money for Styrofoam maintenance. And I hope they haven’t forgotten the budget item for refreshing the gold colour of the drainpipes.

Let me remind Ljutkov that his party charged us for the Styrofoam as if it were marble and for drainpipe paint as if it were gold. So, let him restore the Styrofoam, repaint it, and focus on other matters. The more he complains, the more he reminds us of who actually built it. Those buildings that are falling apart, including the Government building from which Styrofoam is falling off, are the work of the 11-year rule of his party, VMRO-DPMNE.

3 President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Bulgarian President Rumen Radev met on the sidelines of the Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan and, her office said, agreed to organise official visits.

But hey, beggars can’t be choosers, so, let Radev visit her officially, or let her visit him, this time to welcome her with a Macedonian flag and Bulgarian soldiers.

More than half a year has passed, nobody has visited the president, nor has she visited anyone. We’re not talking about group visits, meetings, the UN General Assembly, or various global and regional summits. We’re talking about an official visit, with a ceremonial guard, with anthems, with all the state formalities.

It’s the same case with Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski. Apart from his visit to Andrej Plenković in Zagreb and Viktor Orbán coming to him in Ohrid, no one else has come to him or invited him. And Ursula von der Leyen spent half a day on a short tour of all the capitals in the Western Balkans. That’s it. We don’t count the NATO Summit in Washington and other meetings across Europe where he can be seen here and there with someone in the corridors or exchanging winks at dinners.

They’ve grown tired of bragging about “productive,” “fruitful,” and “substantive” meetings from the sidelines of some mass gatherings, claiming “we won’t lower ourselves” and “we won’t lick anyone’s boots.” In fact, they refuse to realise that we are – isolated.

It seems to me that they didn’t even take Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis seriously when he said at the NATO Summit in Washington: “Greece will not reveal the weapons at its disposal to respond to the tactics of the leadership of the neighbouring country.” He added: “One way or another, they will realise that this tactic is completely counterproductive.”

Both the president and the prime minister had a lot of fun playing their little game about the Prespa Agreement while they were in opposition. But once they came to power, they failed to adapt that game to the reality.

4 The parliamentary session of the Commission for the Supervision of the Work of the National Security Agency (NSA), which was supposed to discuss whether Bojan Hristovski was legally appointed as director, didn’t take place.

The President of the Commission, Skender Rexhepi, didn’t schedule the session because neither he nor his deputy, Blerim Bexheti, both from DUI, have a security clearance to oversee the National Security Agency and the Intelligence Agency.

Can you imagine the scale of the scandal VMRO-DPMNE would have blown up if they were in the opposition?

A few weeks ago, a so-called “deaf room” was established in the Parliament, designed with special protection against wiretapping and data breaches, where the most sensitive security issues for the state will be discussed, accessible only to those holding the highest-level security clearance. However, since neither the president nor the deputy of the Commission have security certificates, there won’t even be any sessions held in it. A complete waste of money. The deaf room will remain deaf.

The eightieth anniversary of Skopje’s liberation was marked in the style of the well-known saying “Tito on one side, Jovanka on the other[1].” Prime Minister Mickoski held one celebration, while Mayor Danela Arsovska organised another.

Mickoski apologised for the mistake of choosing Arsovska as his party’s candidate for mayor of the capital. Perhaps that’s why they chose the slogan “Skopje is waking up.” They’re trying to imply that we should put up with things for one more year, and then everything will be great.

Even now, we can predict that if their candidate wins, they’ll spend a large part of their mandate in complaining – “Oh, what devastation Danela left.” As if we don’t see or live in that devastation.

Skopje is waking up!? No, no. Skopje is in a deep coma. In a three-year nightmare orchestrated by VMRO-DPMNE with their candidate Danela Arsovska. And we are guilty of not forgetting that.

Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski

[1] Translator’s Note: The phrase “Tito on one side, Jovanka on the other” is a saying commonly used among older generations in North Macedonia. It refers to the period when Josip Broz Tito, the leader of Yugoslavia, and his wife, Jovanka Broz, were often seen separately at public events, deliberately avoiding appearing in the same place together.