Venko Filipče, the leader of SDSM, gave an interview to the Serbian portal „Nova rs" in which he laid out something everyone in Macedonia's public sphere whispers - that there is a political-financial Budapest-Belgrade-Skopje network. Orban, Vučić, Mickoski - according to Filipče, they aren't isolated leaders. They're a network, with shared interests, shared financial structures and a shared operating model.

„If you look at the policies, it's complete copy-paste", Filipče said. „The same division of people into patriots and traitors. The same control over the media. The same tricks". That's a serious claim from the leader of the biggest opposition party, and one for which Filipče offers concrete material too.

On the question of the billion-euro loan from Hungary's Eximbank, Filipče said: „The terms are disputed. We don't know everything about the interest, we don't know everything about the guarantees". That's a substantive note. When one country receives a billion-euro loan from another country with specific political ties, questions about the terms aren't conspiracies - they're the job of journalists and the opposition.

Filipče also tied in the media. „Hungarian companies influence the Macedonian media market, as well as the energy sector". That's a claim that exists as data among other researchers too - but in the current context it appears as the headline thesis of opposition politics. Whether it's politicised use of real data, or genuine analysis of hidden structure - that's a question for the coming months.

The interesting bit is when Filipče mentions Nikola Gruevski, who fled Macedonia to Hungary via Serbia. „He has both a Serbian and a Hungarian passport. Do you need more proof?" That's a rhetorical hit, but also a factual state. Gruevski was convicted of abuse of office and still lives in Budapest under political asylum - an arrangement that, according to Filipče, is not accidental.

For readers in the Balkans, this is a serious question - is there a transnational authoritarian axis stretching from Budapest to Belgrade and Skopje? Brussels watches it and reacts with half-measures and postponed decisions. Moscow watches it and rejoices. The citizens of all three countries watch it and don't know how to react. Filipče this time isn't talking about an internal Macedonian issue. He's talking about a regional process. And that process is bigger than one electoral cycle.