1 With five days until the parliamentary elections and the second round of presidential elections, it seems irrelevant to me to analyse who said what at the rallies, how candidates behaved during the campaign and their responses in the pre-election duels. I have a feeling that by now everyone has decided who they’re going to vote for and whether they’re going to vote at all.
The only thing I want to know is who’ll pay for all of this? One way or another we got almost two whole non-working weeks due to bridging state holidays, religious holidays, a non-working Wednesday for elections, and on top of that, this year they decided to introduce a spring break as a reform in education, and people will take additional days off from this or last year’s holiday allowances… Where will find the money?
2 I hear SDSM is planning to increase salaries. VMRO-DPMNE is planning to increase pensions. They’re still tossing around figures. And the gross domestic product will grow. They say it will grow a lot. Let them tell us which tree money grows on so we can all go and pick it. If we didn’t know who we were dealing with, we might think that these guys deserve our wholehearted vote. But we do know them. All these political figures we see making promises at their rallies don’t have a good history of spending taxpayers’ money responsibly. Many of them don’t even know what it means to earn that money. Plus, even if they promise to steal less, one of us will still have to earn their share as well.
Asking the question “Where will we find the money?” is perfectly normal in the world of adults. Especially in a country where parties cultivate clientelism and, in the upcoming elections, strive to appease the voters they’ve overhired within the state administration. No one even knows how many there are – some of them are part time, others full-time, some work for a salary, others for a one-time fee, some without contracts, just keeping seats warm in case another party comes to power and someone else takes their seat, with made-up positions like “Assistant Referral Officer”… They’re plotting something even with the unions, with everyone who’s on a state payroll. Their salaries are set to increase, while we, who must earn both our own and their salary, should be happy if they don’t get our name wrong on the birth certificate.
Who will generate the growth in the gross domestic product that they’re promising? The administration? With all the mistakes they make that always go unnoticed? Or by not going to work?
3 It’s not like I don’t know the answer to the question who’ll pay for all of this. We, the taxpayers, will. However, has anyone stopped to consider whether we can actually do it? How long can we keep doing it? Even that administration won’t have anything to live on if there’s no one to earn their salaries. It’s not just the current salary we have to earn but also the future increased salary, the future increased pension, the paid days when the administration doesn’t go to work, the bridged holidays, private business have to pay off the state’s debts and to invest to increase profitability, all to achieve the growth envisioned of the politicians.
That idea still hasn’t crossed the minds of our party elites. To be honest, it hasn’t crossed the minds of the majority of voters. That’s why promises that can’t be kept are repeated and embraced.
Only when voters become aware enough to ask: Who’ll pay for all of this?, will political leaders think twice before they write all those promises.
4 See you on the 8th of May. After the 9th, we’ll figure things out.
Happy Holidays!
Don’t worry, after Easter, the 24th of May is around the corner, and All Soul’s Day follows next month. Having such great economic growth is really tough, we need to have some rest. After that, we’ll get to work. We’ll also need to pay for the days when they’ll tell each other where they were and how they spent their holidays.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
