Bujar Osmani has once again shared the video in which he draws the EU negotiating framework on a whiteboard. Timcho Mucunski replied that he is the last person entitled to lecture anyone. Two foreign ministers, one former and one serving, arguing on social media about what was accepted and what was not. This is the level at which the country's most important foreign policy question is being handled.

The trigger is a technical question carrying a heavy political load: are the protocols - the minutes of the talks with Bulgaria - part of the Negotiating Framework? Osmani says he has spent four years repeating that they are not, and that the matter is finally settled now that the sitting minister has said that in his view, both as minister and as a lawyer, the protocols are not part of the framework. "For four years I have taken criticism, attacks and insults. For four years I have been drawing on whiteboards, explaining, repeating," the former minister wrote.

In the video, Osmani breaks the framework into two parts. The general part, he says, contains the general provisions for which there is no written Commission report and no vote by member states, and that is where the Treaty with Bulgaria and the Article 12 reviews sit - which is why they cannot be an obstacle. The specific part contains the 35 chapters the country has to work through. The only hypothetical obstacle, in his view, could be the Action Plan for minorities, which sits in the rule of law roadmap but which does not refer to any particular minority.

Mucunski's reply addressed none of these arguments. He told Osmani he "knows very well what he negotiated, what he accepted and what position he left the country in", and that instead of spending energy twisting the facts he should have shown political responsibility. Then came the sharpest part: a politician who failed to win the trust of even his closest fellow citizens in Chair, or of his neighbours, is the last person who should be handing out lessons after a defeat like that.

The minister added that this government's position has been clear and unchanged since day one, that for more than two years they have been hearing accusations that they would cave and accept everything previously agreed, and that instead they have demonstrated consistency and the defence of Macedonian national interests through their actions.

Notice what is missing from this entire exchange. Not one document. No published text of the Negotiating Framework marking where the protocols sit. No legal opinion. There is a video with a whiteboard and a Facebook post using an election result in Chair as an argument. A citizen trying to work out whether the country is close to the EU or far from it is left with two claims and zero evidence.

If the protocols genuinely are not part of the framework, that is good news deserving institutional confirmation, not a comeback on social media. If they are, then both Osmani and Mucunski owe that same citizen an explanation. Steering the conversation towards who did how well in the local elections answers neither question - but it covers beautifully for the fact that the answer still is not there.