The documents for the extradition of Nikola Gruevski from Hungary have been sent from the Criminal Court to the Ministry of Justice. That's the official information. The question SDSM is asking is entirely legitimate - why have these documents „got stuck" in Justice Minister Igor Filkov's drawer? How long have they been sitting there? And are they really „stuck" - or is there another reason for the delay?

An extradition document is not a complicated piece of paper. It isn't a constitutional reform. It's a standard procedure that should pass through the Ministry of Justice in a few days, a few weeks at most. When such a procedure unfolds at a slow-motion pace of months or more - it isn't a technical oversight. It's a political decision.

Nikola Gruevski, the former prime minister, has been in Hungary since 2018, when he was convicted of abuse of office and fled through Albania and Montenegro. Hungary granted him political asylum - a move that angered both Brussels and Skopje at the time. Now, an entire era later, with a new government in Skopje and VMRO in power, the documents for his extradition are nowhere to be found - „in the mail".

What SDSM is concretely asking is simple. Minister Filkov should explain. Have the documents been sent to Budapest or not? If yes - on what day? If not - why? If they're being routed through channels - which channels and on what timeline? All those questions deserve a precise answer. Not „we are resolving it procedurally", not „at an appropriate moment", not „when the time is right". A precise answer to a precise procedure.

From a political point of view, the situation is clear. The VMRO government has no political motive to extradite Gruevski quickly. That would mean a potentially serious scandal - a former PM with a prison sentence who might give up names and additional cases. For SDSM, the opposite - the extradition is politically desirable. That's why the word „why" is so important. The whole procedure depends on who wants the resolution more - and who has the nerve to keep delaying.

For Macedonia as an institution, this story is a test. Not for politicians. A test of the system itself. Can a procedure that ought to be wrapped up in weeks drag on for months when the political wind blows the other way? If the answer is yes - then the system doesn't work. And it's a test we all watch from the sidelines, with no power to do anything about it. Except watch where the documents „get stuck" next week, and the week after.