President Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova today officially opens the People's Office in Skopje. It's a concept that quietly slips back into the Macedonian political lexicon - it existed up until five years ago, then disappeared, now it's back.

The idea is simple: direct contact between the president and citizens. An office where people can submit petitions, civic initiatives, proposals and - expectedly - complaints against institutions. Representatives of the NGO sector will be at the opening, and Siljanovska-Davkova will immediately have her first direct contact with citizens in the new premises.

This is a pre-election commitment that was part of her programme and is now being delivered. Symbolically, that's not nothing. But the question that arises straight away is: what's the real capacity? How many cases can be processed each month? How many staff will work there? How many requests will be „forwarded to the relevant institution" - a formula that means „someone else will answer", and usually no one does?

From 2015 to 2019, when Ivanov ran the same „presidential people's service", the statistics for resolved cases were in the 10-15% range. That means 85-90% of requests ended without resolution - with „forwarded" or „outside our remit". The reality for the average citizen was: I visit the office, I leave a request, I never get an answer.

Will Siljanovska-Davkova do it differently? That depends on two factors. First - whether the office will have real authority to „push" a case at a ministry, inspectorate or municipality. Second - whether there's a mechanism that ensures an answer comes back within a reasonable time. Without those two, this is a PR event - good for the photo, symbolic for democracy, hollow for the citizen.

An office is opening. The question - whom will it actually serve?