Bitola's municipal secretary Borche Dimitrovski hit back openly at a councillor who wanted to cut cultural investments. His argument is simple and accurate: "Bitola deserves both modern infrastructure and excellent culture, sport, health and education. You can't pick between them."

The numbers tell the story. The 2026 municipal budget earmarks over 900 million denars for infrastructure, while culture gets under 40 million denars. That's around 1.9 percent of the total budget - twenty-two times less than infrastructure. In other words, even with the "huge" investments in "Winter Tale" and "BitFest," culture in Bitola is barely visible as a budget line.

"It's bad to lie," Dimitrovski said, "especially when facts and deeds speak louder than words." He pointed to something equally factual - Timeout recently put Bitola among the top 5 European destinations worth visiting. That doesn't happen without culture. It doesn't happen without active institutions, civic associations and festivals. It's the result of a city deciding to be more than a traffic junction.

The real question is different - why, in 2026, does Macedonia keep replaying this false "culture or infrastructure?" dilemma? Bitola shows the answer: both. The other municipalities, the ones debating whether "art can wait," meanwhile watch their centers empty out, their young people leave, and the only thing distinguishing them from each other becomes a different shade of asphalt.