Inspectors Cleared Street Vendors Near the Clinical Center, the Green Market and Bunjakovec: The City Says "We Won't Allow It," but Won't Say How Many Fines or How Many Vendors

The City of Skopje Inspectorate, together with the State Market Inspectorate, the Food and Veterinary Agency and the Centar Municipality Inspectorate, carried out an action on October 30 near the Clinical Center, at the Green Market and in Bunjakovec. People selling on public land without a permit were removed.

The City's message is firm: "We will not allow public spaces to be usurped and used for illegal sales." The goal, they say, is public order, preventing illegal trade and equal conditions for traders who work by the law. That's reasonable. A trader with a permit has every right to ask why he pays while the neighbor on the sidewalk doesn't.

But the press release has sentences and no numbers. How many vendors were removed, how many fines were written, how much merchandise was seized? It doesn't say. The photo shows inspectors in vests and a pile of clothes by a fence, and there isn't a word about the people who were selling them. Who they are and where they went is the part of the story the City skipped.

The checks, they announce, will continue across the whole city. That's also the only thing that will show whether this is a change or a picture for social media. How long will the sidewalk at the Clinical Center stay clean after the inspectors leave?