The first regional public hearing on the Draft Spatial Plan of Macedonia through 2040, held in Strumica, came down to a single issue: mines. The draft lists five sites for metallic mineral resources - Ilovica-Shtuka, Kazandol, Plavica, Kadiica and Luke. Civic and environmental groups want two of them, Ilovica-Shtuka and Kazandol, struck from the plan.

"A mine is not development for Strumica. The Strumica region is an agricultural region," participants said. Goran Stanishlevikj of the group "Healthy Valley" argued that the economic benefits of any mine wouldn't make up for the damage to farming and the environment, pointing to the Jazga river, which, according to the group, supplies water to seven villages.

Why Kazandol again?

Kazandol has a history. The concession for that mining project was terminated in 2018, so civic initiatives are asking why the same site is showing up again in a strategic document valid until 2040. Ilovica-Shtuka, meanwhile, has been tied up for years in institutional, legal and civic disputes, and after a ruling by the Higher Administrative Court this year, the question of the concessions has been reopened.

The activists have given the government until September 29 to revoke the Ilovica-Shtuka concessions. According to them, every municipal council in the Strumica region has already decided it doesn't want mines.

A hearing with threats

The hearing didn't go smoothly. Some of the activists present hurled insults at the experts from state institutions. "We'd have kicked you out" was one of the messages from the floor. Activist Krum Velkov later said those present were "emotional" and "nervous" because of the September 29 deadline.

Dushica Trpchevska-Angjelkovikj of the Spatial Planning Agency explained that the data on the deposits wasn't entered arbitrarily, but is the result of decades of geological research. "This is not a political debate, this is an expert debate," she said. The Environment Ministry added that a marking on the map doesn't by itself mean a mine will open, and that the use of cyanide in mining is prohibited by law.

Whose voice counts for more?

Insults are not an argument, and they hurt no one more than the people who have spent years building real arguments. But the answer "it's just a mark on a map" doesn't reassure anyone either. A strategic document running to 2040 is exactly where the state says what it plans to do. If the local councils say "no" and the plan says "potential," who gets the final word?

The public hearings continue. The next one is on September 29 in Veles, the same day the activists' deadline for the government runs out. Whether the objections from Strumica will change the plan or end up in a drawer will be clear from its final version.