SDSM is pushing the government with a simple argument: while all of Europe launches anti-crisis packages, Mickoski does nothing. The consumer basket has risen by over 3,500 denars since the crisis began. The minimum wage has not been raised. The IPARD programme is blocked. And summer is arriving with a new wave of price increases, they warn.

The government claims it has adopted some of SDSM's proposals - selectively. The opposition says "too little, too late." The truth sits somewhere between those positions - but closer to the second. When fuel, fertilizer, and raw material prices rise simultaneously, farmers do not receive SDSM or VMRO-DPMNE answers - they receive bills.

The specific figures SDSM cites: inflation directly eroding incomes, agriculture without support, subsidies delayed or absent. Autumn and winter bring "seriously damaged living standards." This may be opposition rhetoric. But it may also be accurate. Oil is becoming more expensive, the price accordion moves upward, and the government's response so far is more media strategy than economic policy.

Citizens understand one number clearly: what a basket of groceries cost last year and what it costs now. Everything else is politics.