The untouchables: none of these networks is new

Assault rifles, a sniper rifle, ammunition and an official ISIS flag, seized from 12 locations across Skopje. According to the Interior Ministry, the prime suspect started indoctrinating young people back in 2023, and part of the trail to the group sat in the case files of another trial. In Prilep, Interior Minister Toškovski described the drug network as a group that had been "untouchable for the prosecuting authorities" for more than 15 years. Of 37 searches, four targeted police officers from the Prilep police department, now a matter for the ministry's Internal Control. In the same address, the head of the Public Security Bureau called the security situation in Prilep "favourable".

The National Security Agency, meanwhile, announced it had uncovered a pro-Russian propaganda network hiding behind cloned portals with Macedonian domains - two weeks after the search and without naming a single portal, even though the description almost exactly matches a journalistic investigation from July. As for the owner of the Puls nightclub, prosecutors claim he obtained the licence through a bribe without ever filing an application, and the new detention in that investigation came one day before his one-year custody ran out. The operations are welcome. But each of them brings back the same question: who was watching for years and saw nothing?

The roadmap: Skopje asked for a mediator, got advice

The European Commission's draft brings roadmaps for fast-track membership for Montenegro, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova. Macedonia isn't on it. Skopje and Tirana opened accession talks together in July 2022 - the same year Ukraine and Moldova only got candidate status. Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005. For everyone else, Brussels is offering gradual entry into the single market - on condition of loyalty to its foreign policy, and with access that, according to the draft itself, can be suspended.

The government asked for a European mediator in the talks with Sofia. In Skopje, Ursula von der Leyen said the Macedonian language and culture are welcome in the Union - and that the constitutional amendments remain the key step. The most concrete result of the visit was a piece of advice: Foreign Minister Mucunski should request a bilateral meeting in Sofia. The prime minister said he was not satisfied with her messages, but took the advice. A meeting with Sofia had already been initiated in February, and the two ministers met in May. What will Skopje say at the new meeting that hasn't been said already - and will Brussels be in the room this time?

The treasury: diesel is 100 denars, the difference is in the rebalance

The reduced VAT on diesel was due to expire at midnight, and right up to the last day all the government had to say was "we're discussing, we're looking". Then the measure was extended to 12 October and diesel and petrol both settled at 100 denars a litre. The bill goes to the budget. The prime minister first said the treasury would be 6-7 billion denars short; within days the figure became 7-8 billion. A budget rebalance follows in October, the second this year, and the state is borrowing a fresh 1.3 billion euros. According to the head of the Energy Regulatory Commission, without the measures diesel would cost 125 to 126 denars.

The prime minister's other numbers need a calculator. Inflation "50 percent lower" than Europe's is, by his own figures, lower by about a fifth, while the trade unions' minimum consumer basket has reached 69,432 denars. GDP is growing 4.3 percent, but industry fell 1.9 percent in August, with 3 percent fewer workers. One in four pensioners receives the minimum pension, calculated on the average wage from 2002. For the subsidised student meal, the education minister is offering 147 denars - less than it would take for the meal to keep the purchasing power it had two years ago. A low price at the pump isn't free. It just gets paid somewhere else.

The promises: Kičevo hears its 21st minister

The new hospital in Kičevo went under construction in the eighties. Since then, 21 ministers have come through town with a promise. The latest, Sašo Klekovski, at least didn't promise a date - and the state is still commissioning studies on whether the old structure can be used at all. Čebren is an idea from 1964, and after 14 failed tenders the state will build it alone, with a groundbreaking announced for "next year" and no closed financing structure. The Ljubljanska Street bridge, after years of standstill, is promised by the end of the year.

The announcements arriving today lack exactly the number you would need to check them. Pelister National Park got a contract for state money with a long list of purposes, but the amount wasn't disclosed. The City of Skopje announced "drastically" fewer new hires, but didn't say how many. Butel municipality is putting up new waste containers without saying how many or where. For the data centre worth at least 100 million dollars, the figures for water and electricity are missing. The digital student pass for Skopje's public transport company JSP was announced without a date, and five days later students weren't even in the decision. The contract for 150 electric buses was signed on 9 September, and the public only saw it after a month of questions - for vehicles that, according to the Center for Civil Communications, have 20 fewer places than the last ones the city bought. When the announcement keeps arriving before the number, who calculates what the waiting costs?

The citizens: where people show up on their own

The Skopje Marathon is being run today with a record 15,050 registered runners from 63 countries, and the first street race in Ilinden drew around 1,000 participants, 400 of them children. Around 30,000 people cleaned Skopje in a single day, and 14-year-old Zoran Ilijoski from Kičevo brought home bronze from the Junior Balkan Olympiad in Informatics, his third international medal this year - from a programme run by an association with the support of one faculty and a few companies.

The national football team, meanwhile, reached 697 minutes without a goal after the loss to Scotland, its longest scoring drought in more than three decades of existence. "This is an abyss," said Elif Elmas. The players admit the crisis publicly. Who at the Federation will do the same?

The Prilep network survived for more than fifteen years, Čebren has been waiting since 1964, and Macedonia has been a candidate since 2005. This week all those years got a press release, a new announcement or a piece of advice. None of them got a date on which something actually ends.