1 So, it could be done after all. It turns out it wasn’t that complicated to mow the grass and trim the bushes along the road from the Skopje Airport to the “Boris Trajkovski” Hall, where the OSCE Ministerial Council was held. They managed to find the person responsible for street lighting, so at least the main streets were well-lit. They emptied the wheelie bins along the route taken by the foreign delegations. They even managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible. The police didn’t allow people to illegally park in the first lane of the boulevards while enjoying their coffee.
I’ve always wondered whether the politicians and directors appointed to maintain order and hygiene don’t mind the rubbish on the streets, in parking lots, on roads and in parks? Do they even notice the rubbish? Are their homes and workplaces messy as well? Do they clean every day or just when they have guests coming over?
Now, at least we know that they’re aware the fact we live drowning in rubbish is embarrassing. However, they don’t mind the rubbish, until someone from abroad tells them that they should actually mind it. They respect Blinken and Lavrov more than their fellow citizens. The phrase “we’ll show tourists an ugly picture” send shivers down my spine. And the fact that we live within that ugly picture – that’s ok. They were more worried about how they’d present themselves to the seventy delegations attending the OSCE meeting than to us, the ones who provide their salaries and travel expenses.
Back home, they neither treat us with respect, nor do they clean our streets, nor do they light street lights, nor do they build roads, nor do they keep buses and trains operational, nor do they print textbooks. We’re here just to vote for them.
2 Similar to how we don’t mind the rubbish back home, but the foreigners do mind it and ambassadors go out to clean our parks from time to time, we also don’t mind our corrupt officials, but foreigners do.
And now, after America blacklisted three or four high-profile politicians and businessmen, apparently our Government is going to draft legal amendments for all those who are under US, EU or UN sanctions, preventing them from holding political offices or working within the administration…
After our Government proposed and our Assembly adopted the legal amendments, using a fast-tracked procedure under the European flag, individuals accused of corruption were exempted from criminal prosecution and the expiration of the statute of limitations on their cases was facilitated, we now intend to introduce new legal amendments that will prevent those previously pardoned from assuming official positions. Why? Because they’ve been blacklisted by the USA.
Deputy Prime Minister Slavica Grkovska said that amendments would need to be passed to ensure that “if any current official receives such sanctions, their mandate would be terminated immediately.” The mayor of Struga, Ramiz Merko, is on the black list of the USA, yet the government saved him through the amendments to the criminal code, allowing 15 investigations against him to expire.
Grkovska says that “acting as if nothing happened after such sanctions undermines trust in our institutions”.
As if the adoption of a law granting amnesty to officials and public office holders who stole public money doesn’t undermine trust in our institutions. It especially doesn’t undermine trust in the Government that proposed these amendments, the Assembly that passed them and the officials who are pardoned.
So, we now intend to introduce a new law which should protect us from politicians and parties appointing seasoned bandits to important positions. America has already protected itself from them. Meanwhile, here, not only do we not mind them but we also pay them compensation because the state had prosecuted them for stealing from us.
Since we’re going to change our Constitution to include Bulgarians, why not kill two birds with one stone by adding the thing with the American blacklists as well. The current Constitution doesn’t prevent someone from engaging in politics if they’re under foreign sanctions. They’d sue for discrimination. We’d need to compensate them for damages as well.
3 The president of the Judicial Council, Sashko Georgiev, follows the same pattern and says that “if the assessment mission of the European Union concludes that the Judicial Council should be dissolved, they’ll respect the decision.” He also says that he’ll respect the recommendation “from a relevant factor”.
As if our laws and all of us who provide their salaries are irrelevant. It’s not important what the domestic public thinks about the Judicial Council when it violates laws to protect crime and injustice, but what the EU says is important.
The corrupt judiciary, led by the renegade Judicial Council, is ruining our lives. It’s not ruining the lives of EU citizens.
4 Our authorities have no fear, no shame, neither from foreigners, nor from us. They’re just play-acting governance. Something along the lines of foreigners are criticising us, so we’ll pretend to address it.
To illustrate how much they really care about the public interest, here’s a historical comparison:
Pelister was designated a national park through a law passed by the Presidium of the People’s Republic of Macedonia on the 30th of November, 1948, marking it as the first protected national treasure in Macedonia.
I repeat – in 1948. Three years after the Second World War, in a devastated country, where there were severe shortages of electricity, water and sewage services, with the majority of the population illiterate, the state declared a national park and preserved our natural heritage.
Exactly 75 years later, almost on the same date – on the 29th of November, 2023, at Pelister National Park, 165 trees of the endemic pine molika and fir species were cut. The Bitola police filed charges against six people, including the director of the Park and the chairman of the Management Board.
This paints a stark picture of modern Macedonia – a NATO member state, a serious EU candidate and a successful chairman of the OSCE.
Pine trees rustle, but money rustles as well.
Translated by Nikola Gjelincheski
