A Rolls-Royce at 194 km/h, a budget revision that cuts investment, water in "Stiv Naumov", fake vaccines in Veles

The budget revision: the deficit stays, the investment goes

The heaviest number of the day comes from the Fiscal Council's opinion on the second budget revision. The 2026 budget started with a planned deficit of 39.2 billion denars. In July the government raised it to 46.3 billion, explaining that this was the price of bigger capital investment. Now capital spending drops from 46.5 to 40.1 billion denars, a cut of about 6.3 billion. The deficit doesn't budge.

The Council warns that this breaks the "golden rule" of public finance: borrowing is supposed to fund investment, not day-to-day spending. Social transfers grow by about 3.7 billion denars, and public debt stood at 58.8 percent of GDP at the end of June, just 1.2 percentage points under the legal ceiling. The ministry says the projects are running late. If the projects are late, why isn't the borrowing late along with them?

"Stiv Naumov" leaks, and Skopje's JSP runs fewer than half its buses

The "Stiv Naumov" student dormitory, renovated for around 10 million euros, didn't last a month: students report water coming through the walls, damp and cold radiators. The monthly fee is 6,600 denars, almost double the 3,410 denars charged in second-category dorms. The Ministry of Education answered with a list of the residents' own mistakes, from wet wipes in the sewage to a cigarette lit in a room. But water doesn't seep through a wall because of a microwave.

The same gap between the plan and the street runs through the city's public transport. JSP went from 51.6 million to around 22 million passengers a year in ten years: of its 341 buses, about 185 actually work, and 157 make it onto the streets. Meanwhile the city debates BRT, a light metro and a city train. Who is going to maintain the new vehicles when they arrive?

Veles: other people's despair as income

The Basic Public Prosecutor's Office in Veles searched the premises of a local man, M.A., suspected of offering cancer patients fake "Cuban vaccines". The case covers fraud and quackery, and according to what has come out publicly, for years he injected an unregistered substance into dozens of patients across Macedonia, charging thousands of euros. If the suspicions are proven, this was a deliberate choice by one man to turn someone else's illness into income. The question for the institutions comes second: how could this go on for years before anyone stopped it?

A Rolls-Royce at 194 km/h and a death in Hrom

On the Gostivar - Tetovo motorway, on a stretch limited to 80, a Rolls-Royce driver was clocked at 194 kilometres per hour. The 44-year-old from Gostivar was detained on suspicion of reckless driving. The expensive car isn't the offence. The offence is the decision to drive at that speed next to everyone else on the road. This time the police interceptor was in the right place.

In Skopje's Hrom neighbourhood, a 62-year-old man was found dead in his home with signs of violence. The body has been sent for an autopsy, and so far the police have only said that "measures are being taken to solve the case". The neighbours are waiting for answers to two questions: was it murder, and is whoever did it still free?

23 October, Brussels and Rome

On the Day of the Macedonian Revolutionary Struggle, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said the road to the EU must be walked wisely and patiently. SDSM answered with a list: this week EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos reportedly talked about Montenegro, Albania, Serbia and Kosovo, and never mentioned Macedonia. In Bitola and Prilep the mayors laid flowers before Dame Gruev and Čento and spoke about responsibility for the future. A nice line, but obligations are measured after the holiday too.

In Rome, in St. Peter's Basilica, Metropolitan Georgij held a prayer service for St. Erasmus of Ohrid, the first ever at the altar dedicated to the saint, and then met Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. On what they discussed - not a word.

The region and Europe: elections, protests, war at sea

Serbia votes in snap parliamentary elections on Sunday. The final Ipsos poll gives Vučić's list 47.4 percent and the students 40 percent, but it was commissioned by Vučić's list itself. The NSPM poll puts the students ahead, 44.5 to 42.7 percent. As for the electoral silence, the media regulator REM is measuring it in minutes on N1 and Nova S.

A wave of protests has swept Europe, from France, which is putting 70,000 police and gendarmes on the streets, to Albania, where the government in Tirana is considering a blacklist of protesters. In Trappes near Paris, a man opened fire at a petrol station, outside a medical centre and at a children's playground: one person is dead and five are wounded, among them a 12-year-old girl. Macron called the attack terrorist and racist.

In the Black Sea, the cargo ship Khoryv capsized off Constanța after a fire: one crew member is dead, three are missing, and Romanian President Nicușor Dan called the incident part of Russia's escalation. Croatian sailors are demanding a war zone in the Black Sea. Diplomacy offers a new date: Zelensky announced a meeting in Abu Dhabi in the first half of November, with two conditions - security guarantees and ten years of funding for the Ukrainian army.

Flu and inequality

So far 55,535 people have signed up for the free seasonal flu vaccine, more than 60 percent of them over 65. The least interested are pregnant women and children, even though they are also a risk group. Eurostat, meanwhile, shows Macedonia with a Gini coefficient of 29.2, the same as the EU average, with one difference: our figure is from 2024. An even distribution doesn't mean a high standard of living.

Borders, a marathon and Vardar in Nantes

The long weekend filled the borders: the wait at Tabanovce was over an hour, at Bogorodica around 40 minutes, and on the motorway from Gevgelija to Bogorodica one side of the carriageway is closed. The Skopje Marathon drew a record 15,040 runners from 63 countries, more than Belgrade, Sofia or Zagreb. And in handball, after four defeats Vardar finally won, 33:27 in Nantes.

If the heavier part of the day has a common thread, it is the distance between what was announced and what was delivered: a deficit justified by investment that is now being cut, a renovation that leaks after a month, buses that exist in the records but not at the bus stop. The numbers are public. Who is going to answer for them?