The mayor of Skopje, Orce Gjorgjievski, has opened a series of field meetings with citizens under the initiative "Close to the People - True to Our Word". The first meeting took place in Kisela Voda, at the "Biljana Belichanec" House of Culture, with the municipality's mayor Beti Stamenkoska-Trajkoska, the directors of public utilities, and representatives of city departments all in attendance.

What does "close to the people" actually mean? In theory, direct communication between city hall and the public, with no intermediaries. In practice, it is a politically calculated move. Six months into his term, Gjorgjievski needs to show he is working - and that he is listening. The field, as he put it himself, is "my natural environment".

Kisela Voda residents used the meeting to raise current problems, future projects and development plans. No concrete topics were announced in advance - that is part of the model. The point is that the meetings look open and unstructured, with no pre-baked agenda. Whatever a resident raises, they get a reply. That is the politics of it.

Whether the model carries any real weight depends on two things. First - whether promises made at these meetings get delivered in the coming months. Second - whether Gjorgjievski keeps these meetings going (rather than treating them as a one-off PR moment). The classic Balkan failure mode is a promise that fades within months. If Kisela Voda sees a handful of finished projects by the end of the year, the model will be a win. If not, it is just another propaganda tour.