The mayor of Bitola, Toni Konjanovski, has delivered a report on the first year of his new term. The figures he presented are concrete and verifiable, which is a departure from the usual municipal speech full of promises and empty of numbers.

According to the report, in one year the Bitola municipality has 81 approved projects from two government calls financed through the Hungarian loan. More than 10 kilometres of road infrastructure have been rebuilt or newly built in the city and in rural areas, over 3 kilometres of water and sewage network have been laid, and 220 new parking spaces have been created on land that was previously encroached on or freed up by new streets.

Where the money goes

In education and childcare, the Pčelička kindergarten has opened with capacity for 475 children, a new kindergarten is under construction in Nova Bitola for 153 children and another in the army complex for 246. A new school is going up in the Bukovski Livadi neighbourhood, an investment worth over 31 million denars.

For sport and culture: the reconstruction of the former boxing hall with more than 40 million denars in government support, the conversion of the Partizan cinema into a multipurpose venue with a 96-million-denar investment, and 5 kilometres of cycle path built with another 2.7 kilometres in preparation. The 2026 social protection programme has been allocated 14.6 million denars, of which 1.5 million is for people with rare diseases.

Among the capital projects is the new fire station in the former barracks, into which more than 52 million denars have gone so far. The second phase is financed by a grant of around one million dollars from the US Department of Defense.

What the numbers do not say

The report is long and full of figures, which is good. But 81 projects in one year means an average of one project every four and a half days. No municipal administration in Macedonia works at that pace on its own - that is the pace at which contracts get signed, not the pace at which work gets finished.

Which is why the real report is not this one but the next: how many of those 81 projects are finished, how many are under way, and how many are still on paper. Konjanovski says this is not day-to-day politics but a continuous and strategic commitment. The people of Bitola will check that not at a press conference, but when they drive down those 10 kilometres of street.