A Child Behind the Wheel, Party-Line Scores for the Judicial Council, OKTA and a Funfair on Paper

A fourteen-year-old behind the wheel and three drivers with bans that mean nothing

In a single 24 hours, police detained 11 drivers for reckless driving, and the list reads like a cross-section of everything wrong on Macedonia's roads. A fourteen-year-old from the village of Dobrino and a sixteen-year-old from Skopje were driving without a licence. Five in total had never passed a driving test, including a 51-year-old man. Three had an active driving ban, and one of them was caught with 1.11 per mille of alcohol in his blood and a white lumpy substance in the car. If three drivers with bans get caught in a single day, how many are out there who never get caught?

The Interior Ministry catches, but doesn't explain

The Interior Ministry also had two bigger wins, and both come with a hole in the story. A man sentenced to 16 years for terrorism and serious crimes was arrested only when he came back through the Blace border crossing on his own - two eight-year sentences had been waiting for him while he was abroad, and nobody said how he managed to leave in the first place. And the OLVX stolen-password marketplace led to Golema Rechica near Tetovo: the FBI said thousands of Americans were exposed, while the ministry celebrates the operation and stays silent on whether any of the stolen accounts belong to Macedonians.

Bulgaria and the Judicial Council: a dialogue with a known ending, scores along party lines

Prime Minister Mickoski is offering the opposition a seat in the dialogue with Bulgaria. SDSM calls it a "circus", Levica refuses bilateral talks with Sofia, and from Sofia comes the message that the constitutional amendments are not up for renegotiation. Is the prime minister looking for partners in a solution or for witnesses to a failure? Meanwhile in Parliament, the candidates for the Judicial Council were scored almost strictly along party lines: Aleksovska got 100 points from the VMRO-DPMNE MP and 43 from the DUI MP. A body meant to guard the independence of the judiciary is starting out with scores that reveal the party of whoever is doing the grading.

Cheapest in Europe, yet the basket keeps running away from the wage

Eurostat says Macedonia is the cheapest country in Europe. The trade unions say their monthly consumer basket costs 69,432 denars while the average wage is 48,499 denars, and that the basket got 4,355 denars more expensive in a single year. Both are true, and that is exactly the problem. For women farmers, the social security measure has two and a half million denars, with 100,000 denars per maternity claim - enough for at most 25 mothers - and the applications are still filed on paper.

OKTA without a barrel of oil since 2012, and Pelagonia's miners without an analysis

The OKTA refinery has not processed a single barrel of oil since 2012, and now the government wants a restart examined. The prime minister talks about GDP growth, the minister about "an option at an early stage", and nobody says how much the filters would cost to keep the Skopje valley from choking. In Bitola, energy looks different: the municipality is proud of its map of renewable sources and a memorandum for Zhabeni, while at the forum it was said that the analysis for the miners of Pelagonia is still to be done.

Skopje: a funfair, a city train and parking without a price

Skopje's funfair was announced in December as "one of the best in the region", got a 10-million-euro contract in May, and by August the contract was terminated over a court dispute about rides the city already owned. Now the city will install the rides bought back in Trajanovski's time. Minister Nikoloski, meanwhile, counts the passengers of the city train - 300 to 500 a day - as just as many fewer cars in Skopje. A passenger is not a car, and 150 electric buses are not the 250 Skopje asked for. In Avtokomanda, zone parking is a step closer: three million denars for signs, and on the price and rules for residents - not a word.

Municipalities that count, and a state that doesn't

In Kichevo, school transport cost 42 million denars in 2024 and 21 million in 2025. The mayor boasts about savings, but someone needs to explain why it used to cost double. In the Gevgelija area, five drinking fountains have unsafe water, a water supply system is on the list too, and the municipality only talks about the natural springs. And on White Cane Day, Parliament heard that blind people are entitled to the white cane by law, but in Macedonia it can't even be bought. The state puts the number of blind and visually impaired people somewhere between four and ten thousand.

The region: Tirana burns, Belgrade sends diplomatic notes

In Albania, the student revolt has held Tirana for a third day: it started with expensive tuition and poor conditions at the universities and has reached burning ministries and 55 arrests, while Rama has no intention of leaving. Serbia, meanwhile, accuses Zagreb of meddling in its elections over newspaper articles, and Croatian journalists are bracing for harassment at the border. Further away, Russia is striking the Danube delta, right on the doorstep of Romania and Bulgaria, and Zelensky has ended the pause on strikes against Russian refineries.

Sport: one goal in Plock and 45 seconds for Elmas

Vardar went out after a one-goal defeat in Plock, while Ohrid enters the European Cup as the biggest favourite. MZT let history slip away by three points in front of 500 spectators in Aerodrom, and Elmas scored after 45 seconds. Macedonians in Europe had an evening of goals and assists.

The heavier part of the day has one common thread: bans, laws, contracts and measures that exist on paper and are nowhere to be found on the ground. The question is not whether the rules are good, but who stands behind them when it is time to apply them.