On 26 July, the day Skopje marked the 63rd anniversary of the earthquake, SDSM leader Venko Filipče wrote that the city and the entire country are being destroyed again - only this time not by a natural disaster, but by a systemic one.

„Today we remember and pay tribute to the victims of the devastating earthquake in Skopje on 26 July 1963. Sixty-three years ago, at 5:17, in just twenty seconds, the city was turned into rubble”, the post reads. Filipče recalled the lives lost and the thousands of families left without a home.

Then comes the political part. Skopje, once an example of solidarity and progress, is in his view today a symbol of neglect, chaos and lost opportunities. „The central and local government of VMRO show solidarity only when it comes to party and criminal interests, while society sinks into institutional chaos, poverty and hopelessness.”

The metaphor is well chosen - an earthquake lasting years instead of twenty seconds. But it is worth remembering what stands behind any politician who uses it: SDSM was in power from 2017 to 2024, meaning seven of those 63 years the city was its responsibility. Illegal construction, lost green space and institutional chaos did not appear on 1 June 2024.

That does not make the criticism invalid. It means criticism from a party with a recent term is worth exactly as much as it is specific - which project is blocked, which tender is suspicious, which decision was never implemented. That is the difference between an opposition that works and an opposition that writes anniversary posts.

What all of this leaves outside the party sentences is precisely what actually holds the city together: in 1963 Skopje got back on its feet because people and the world helped, not because some government proved capable. That is a fact both Filipče and those he criticises can calmly acknowledge.