The battle over the Usje cement plant has flared up again. The citizens' initiative "Stop Usje" has announced a protest march for 23 June, with one clear demand - that the factory stop operating by outdated pollution standards from 2007 and align with modern European norms.

At the heart of the dispute is the environmental permit. Activists claim the company wants to keep operating by limit values nearly two decades old, instead of adopting the best available techniques for protecting the environment. The company, for its part, rejects the accusations and claims that "emissions are below the legal limit values".

And that's exactly the knot of the whole story. "Below the legal values" can be true and still mean dirty air - if the law itself is tailored to fit the polluter, not the citizen who breathes that air. The question isn't whether Usje follows the rules, but whether the rules protect the people of Skopje at all. When the standard is from 2007, while science and Europe moved on long ago, who has an interest in keeping that standard frozen?

Skopje has for years been drowning under one of the most polluted skies on the continent. Every winter the same story, every summer the same promises. The march on 23 June won't clean the air overnight, but at least it raises a question the institutions persistently dodge: whose interest matters more - the factory's or the city's lungs?