In a statement, SDSM claims that after the breakup of the ZNAM coalition, VMRO-OKG is also now in „internal conflicts, factions and withdrawals." The lead name in all of this is Sotir Lukrovski, mayor of Karpoš, who, according to the opposition, doesn't want to sign documents that could open up personal criminal liability.

According to opposition sources, Lukrovski refused to sign what was put in front of him - allegedly tied to suspicious building legalisations, illegal constructions, financial transfers and favouritism toward certain companies. And so instead of showing up at public events, he is „on sick leave" - which has already gone on too long.

Former mayor Stevčo Jakimovski contests the official version. According to him, the evidence is simple: the municipality asked for Lukrovski to be deleted from the central registry, his driver handed in the car keys, and the treasury is already being signed off without his name. „This isn't sick leave. This is an escape from Karpoš," Jakimovski says. A simple sentence, with a nightmare of a bureaucratic translation.

From inside VMRO-OKG come voices about factions tied to the former leader Nikola Gruevski, about internal purges, removal of deputies and resignations of deputies. That's the political picture everyone in the Balkans recognises - when a party is in opposition everyone backs everyone, but when the party is in power and the money is on the table - that's when „internal disagreements" start.

The SDSM-VREDI pair is watching, in real time, as the main ruling coalition tears off piece by piece. The question isn't whether this is real - the facts on Lukrovski are documented. The question is whether it means anything to the ordinary Karpoš citizen, who for over a month hasn't known who runs their municipality and who approves projects. Institutional accountability cannot be „on sick leave." Or it can - if nobody reacts.