At the General Hospital in Kavadarci, seven babies were born in a single morning - four boys and three girls. For a town that, like much of Macedonia, is fighting negative natural growth and the mass emigration of the young, seven newborns in a single day is an event worth recording.

The deliveries went well, the hospital says. The day in the maternity ward - „especially busy", according to medical staff. Such moments are rare in smaller towns. Kavadarci and the Tikvesh region register more funerals than births each year. Historically, it is the place where wine, tobacco and fruit farming hold the economy together - yet young people leave for Skopje, Germany or Austria.

Seven babies in one day will not solve the demographic crisis. But they remind everyone who forgot that these hospitals still employ professionals doing their share of the work without much publicity and with limited resources. The Kavadarci hospital, like most regional hospitals, fights staff shortages and ageing equipment - and still functions.

For the families that brought their first babies home today, this is the most provocative news Macedonia can offer this week. Not a new party statement, not a new parliamentary scandal, not yet another postponed reform. Just seven children who will grow up in a town fighting for its own future.

A question without an answer - and it is a question for the state, not for the mothers: who will these babies be in 25 years? Will Macedonia offer them work, a household, a future? Or will they follow the same road as their parents, in their uncles' footsteps? It is an answer written with a 25-year delay. Until then - congratulations to all seven families.