The tender for procuring new buses in Skopje will be reissued within a week, the City of Skopje says. The previous tender for 150 ecological buses collapsed - according to the Ministry of Transport, „the companies that applied did not meet the conditions". The people of Skopje, who stand at bus stops every day waiting for half-functional buses from the 1980s, enter another round of „we are waiting".

For context: out of a total of 341 buses at JSP „Skopje", only 185 are operational each day, while only 157 actually drive their routes. Which means more than half the fleet does not work on any given day. Overcrowded buses at the stops, delays of 30+ minutes, and routes that push out the families who depend on public transport - that is the reality.

Of the four bids on the previous tender, not one passed the check. SDSM accused the whole thing of being aimed at „setting up an Orban-linked firm" - meaning the procedure was deliberately designed to favour a specific Hungarian candidate. The Left went the other direction: five years of promises about „eco buses" and nothing arrives.

What is the reality of a tender procedure in Macedonia? The hidden risk is that every new tender requires a minimum of 90 days of processing - issuance, bid collection, evaluation, contract, signature. Even if this round succeeds, the first buses will not reach Skopje before the end of 2026. Until then - the same 157 vehicles, the same chaos at the stops, the same gridlocked system.

The question that does not get asked: if the current fleet works at 46 percent (157/341), who is maintaining the other buses? How much does current maintenance cost? And why, after five years of promises, do Skopje's taxi drivers still hold roughly the same market share as five years ago - because no sane person is counting on JSP to arrive on time?

The answer: JSP is a political symbol. Used in campaigns, not solved in reality. Citizens wait. Authorities promise. Tenders collapse. The cycle continues. And, as such stories end in other European cities - when political will meets fiscal resources, the problem is solved in 18 months. When it does not - 30 years of waiting.