The inspectors: the lock was opened from the inside

From September 2020 to August 2026, a clerk in the Interior Ministry's administrative department in Skopje, according to prosecutors, used her official codes to write C and D categories into the driving licences of people who never passed the exam for them. With those licences they got behind the wheel of buses and trucks across Europe. At the Bogorodica border crossing, a customs officer allegedly told smugglers his shifts and which lane he was posted to, and 86,200 euros plus 16 gold-coloured bars turned up inside a suspended ceiling. In Skopje, an inspector from the Food and Veterinary Agency was detained - she allegedly demanded paperwork nobody needed, then made a clean inspection report conditional on cash. Until a court rules, she is a suspect, not a convict.

The same week, the state announced a hunt for fake sick leave, with the police as a partner. The only hard evidence of abuse so far comes from the Interior Ministry itself: the Health Insurance Fund checked 80 police employees and found irregularities in 29. Meanwhile the State Market Inspectorate, according to the auditors, does not even know what is in its own warehouses, and only 5 of its 14 product-safety posts are filled. When the leak sits behind the counter, who inspects the inspectors?

Diesel: oil was falling, the pump wasn't listening

On 22 September the Energy Regulatory Commission raised diesel by 5.50 denars to 104.50 denars a litre, while petrol got 1.50 denars cheaper and crude oil was falling. The explanation is not Brent, but refined diesel on the Mediterranean exchange - a market nobody at the pump ever sees. Since January diesel has gone up 60.77 percent, from 65 to 104.50 denars, and extra-light heating oil by 78.91 percent. Winter is less than three months away.

The government says it has one active measure left - reduced VAT on diesel, cut from 18 to 10 percent. That measure alone keeps Macedonia with the cheapest diesel in Europe, around 1.70 euros a litre. But the low price is a state measure with an expiry date, and by Monday the government decides whether the reduced VAT stays for another two weeks. The energy minister says every measure will be taken if the situation escalates. What exactly counts as "escalating" when diesel is already up 60 percent?

The trip: a close friend, fifty seconds in a hallway

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski came back from Washington with the line every prime minister brings home - the US sees us as a close friend. Checked item by item, the picture is more modest: a communication channel opened for Čebren and Galište, talks with six companies about data centres, and a signature only behind up to five million dollars for preparing and assessing the Krstov Dol mine, confirmed back in April. New York brought a fifty-second video with Secretary of State Marco Rubio - standing, in a space that looks more like a hotel corridor, presented as confirmation of a strategic partnership. In the same period the State Department redirected 52 million dollars in military financing from Slovakia, Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq to Latin America.

From New York the prime minister said we have made too many concessions - the flag, the constitution and the name have all changed, and the EU is no closer. Most citizens would sign that diagnosis. But no step with a deadline followed, and when Skopje asked for the EU to join the table, Sofia replied that it is open to dialogue - once Macedonia fulfils its obligations.

Belgrade: staying seated, on every chair

Aleksandar Vučić spent the week at the podium. At the UN he went after Croatia, complained about double standards on Kosovo and looked to Trump to rescue the international order. When dozens of delegations walked out of Benjamin Netanyahu's speech, the Serbian one stayed in its seats - Belgrade and Israel are now also tied by a drone factory. Before the resignation scheduled for 27 September came an hour on the phone with Putin, and the legacy is Russian gas at 318 euros per 1,000 cubic metres while the market sits at 868.

In the same week oligarch Novinsky, wanted by Ukraine for high treason, got a Serbian passport. Sitting on every chair is an old Balkan skill. Is it neutrality, or a price each table pays separately?

The municipalities: they said no, and the plan runs to 2040

Greece signed with AWS, and Kozani is getting a 300-megawatt data centre. Here, the council in Pehčevo unanimously rejected a data centre without the public ever learning who the investor was. Even the VMRO-DPMNE councillors voted against a project of their own government, and the minister agreed with them: there was no project, no study, not even a figure for how many megawatts the facility would use.

In the Strumica region the outcome is the opposite. The councils came out against mines, yet Ilovica-Štuka, Kazandol, Plavica, Kadiica and Luke sit on page 187 of the draft Spatial Plan running to 2040. The ministry says it is only a draft. Activists gave the government a deadline of 29 September, and the public hearing ended in threats. If the mine is on the map today, how far away is the excavator tomorrow?

The statements this week were loud: inspections, partnerships, the cheapest diesel, a neutral Belgrade. Under each of them sat a number the podium skipped - 29 of 80, five million dollars, page 187. A statement lasts a day. The number stays.