From May 8 to 10, the sixth „Big Clean-up Weekend" rolls out across Macedonia - a clean-up action with record participation. Tens of thousands of volunteers, 600 organisations, 80 municipalities. More than 500 locations. Institutions, companies, the army, the Red Cross. All of Macedonia, on its feet - with a broom in hand.

The main opening is on May 8 at 9 a.m., on the Vardar embankment. Skopje begins by cleaning a stretch of the river, from the mouth of the Lepenec to the „Kiro Gligorov" bridge. Eight teams are deployed on both banks.

In the Šar Mountains, the national park will be cleared of illegal landfills - by 20 members of the Army, forest rangers and the Austrian waste company „Saubermacher". On the shores of Lake Ohrid the action is led by professors, students and the Soroptimist clubs. In schools, an „Eco class" will run in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and UNICEF.

Everything's set up for a record. And that is the pride of „Big Clean-up Weekend" - a civic action that doubles every year in participants, locations and partners.

But the question is different. Why is a „big clean-up" needed in a country with paid public utilities? Why does every municipality here have a cleaning budget, and yet the Šar Mountain still waits for an Austrian invoice and 20 soldiers to be clean? Why do the rivers fill with plastic and styrofoam - with all the environmental fees the citizens already pay?

The clean-up isn't wrong. On the contrary - it is the most beautiful part of Macedonian civic energy. Tens of thousands of people, no campaign, no party, no interest - going out with gloves to tidy up a place someone else is supposed to maintain.

But the question still needs to be asked. „We're cleaning for a green future", the organisers say. „From the past". Fine. But what about the present? Who answers for the active illegal landfills right now? Who wins the tenders for utilities in Skopje, and why is the Vardar yellow-brown again every spring?

On May 8, go out. Bring gloves. Bring the kids. This is what Macedonia really is - a family that doesn't depend on institutions. But on the Monday after, the question has to be asked again - to those who take a salary to do this every day.