Vasko Joleski, Brvenica, 350 million in interest, a raid on nightlife venues

Vasko Joleski and the questions he leaves behind

Vasko Joleski from Struga has died. He was the president of the "Brave Heart" association and lived for more than six years with a mechanical pump keeping his heart going. Recently, after years of waiting, a chance at a heart transplant came up and he took it. He told reporters that in a week he would give them an interview, this time as a man with a new heart. That interview never happened. The circumstances of his death are not public and we will not speculate about them. But the questions he kept asking, about the crushing costs faced by patients on mechanical heart support and about organ donation, now have no one left to ask them that loudly. Will anyone hear them?

Brvenica: a win with 445 fewer votes

Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski is celebrating the result in Brvenica as a win "bigger than four to one" over SDSM. That is true, but set against last year's election the picture is far less triumphant. Stojančo Radičevski, the candidate of the VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition, won 2,943 votes, 445 fewer than his party's candidate got a year ago, and on a higher turnout. The candidate of the DUI-led coalition almost doubled his votes to 2,152, while Vlen slid from 2,021 to 1,528. Radičevski and Arkin Jahij go to the runoff on 1 November. The key sits with Vlen, a party that governs alongside VMRO-DPMNE, yet whose candidate went in person to congratulate Jahij on election night. If the result really has "wider political significance", as Mickoski says, then so do the 445 votes his party lost.

350 million euros just on interest

SDSM came out with a number every taxpayer should know: the state will pay around 350 million euros this year on interest alone, about 120 million more than the budget spends on social assistance. According to the opposition, public debt has grown by around 4 billion euros in new borrowing over two years, and the budget deficit will top 900 million euros. These are an opposition party's numbers, presented at a press conference, not an audit report. Which is exactly why the ball is in the Finance Ministry's court: if the figure is wrong, it can easily come out with the right one. If it's right, the question isn't whether it's big, but what we got for the borrowed money.

Inflation is below Europe's, the shopping basket isn't

According to the State Statistical Office, annual inflation in Macedonia stood at 2.7 percent in September, below Europe's 3.8 percent. On paper, we're doing better than Europe. But the Federation of Trade Unions calculates that the minimum union consumer basket rose by 4,355 denars in a year and now stands at 69,432 denars, with more than 25,000 of that going on food and drink alone. Inflation measures speed, not level: when it slows, prices don't go back down, they just rise more slowly. How good is 2.7 percent, really, for a family that has to fill that basket every month?

Night raid: blocked exits and alcohol for minors

Over the weekend, police and inspectors checked more than 60 cafés, clubs, casinos and betting shops across Macedonia. According to unofficial information, they found venues with no fire-safety equipment and with blocked exits, minors being served alcohol, and a place running illegal online betting. By the time the first reports came out, the Interior Ministry had not issued an official statement on the operation. A blocked exit in a nightclub is not a paperwork slip. Who inspected these venues before the raid, and what did those inspection reports say?

On the night of 17 to 18 October, the mobile traffic unit in Ilinden, Gazi Baba and Kisela Voda caught eight drivers under the influence of alcohol, and three with more than 1.50 per mille were taken into custody. Nationwide, 25 drivers were detained in a single day, 12 of them driving without a licence, including three minors. When a sixteen-year-old is driving without a licence, the question isn't only about him. Who handed him the keys?

The region: Zagreb sets conditions, Belgrade heads to the polls

Croatia presented the other EU members with eight demands on Montenegro in its accession talks, including one over the training ship "Jadran", and the pro-Serbian MP Milan Knežević answered with a call to "self-organise". Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković shot back that he doesn't believe the leadership in Podgorica will follow "such brilliant ideas". In Serbia, less than a week before the snap election on 25 October, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico took the stage at Aleksandar Vučić's rally in Novi Sad, while ten journalists left N1, one of the country's few critical TV channels. When a foreign prime minister gives a speech at someone else's campaign rally, it's no longer friendship. It's campaigning.

The world: sanctions in a drawer, Kyiv without power

Donald Trump suspended a large part of the Russia-related sanctions and tariffs just days before they were due to take effect, even though he signed the law behind them himself last month. The order says it is "in the national interest" but doesn't explain why. In Moscow, Kirill Dmitriev called the move "a truly historic moment". When the Kremlin celebrates, you don't have to look far to see who won. In Kyiv, Russian strikes on the energy grid left parts of the city without electricity and water at the start of the heating season, while Zelensky and Klitschko are publicly blaming each other for the city not being ready. They share an enemy, and they're fighting each other.

In Europe, the wave of cost-of-living protests has spilled over from France and Spain into Italy and Portugal. In France more than 2,000 people have been arrested and over 600 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters injured. In Limoges the historic town hall building burned, and in Milan a march ended with barricades set on fire. This is a Europe where energy in the eurozone has become 18.8 percent more expensive in a year.

Sport: a nine-goal cushion and one painful injury

Alkaloid beat Austria's Ferlach 31:22 in the EHF European Cup and head to Vienna with a nine-goal lead, despite playing without the injured Nenad Kosteski and Vuko Borozan. The worse news is for the women's national team: Angela Jankulovska has had surgery on her knee and will miss the European Championship. In football, Shkendija sit top of the table ahead of the derby with Vardar, and in basketball Rabotnički came back from 14 points down in Bitola.

In the heavier part of the day, everyone quoted the number that suits them: Mickoski the ratio against SDSM, SDSM the interest bill, the unions the shopping basket. The official number for the raid still hasn't appeared. And the questions Vasko Joleski asked for years are still waiting for an answer from the system.