Eleven villages around Struga have had no public transport since 24 August. Not because of snow, not a flood, not a breakdown - because of an unpaid bill. The operators halted service after running a route for years that the municipality was not paying for.

The timing is what makes this sharp. The stoppage lands exactly one week before the school year starts. Children from these villages are supposed to set off for school on Monday, and the vehicle that takes them no longer runs.

The operators are demanding the outstanding debt be settled within 15 days, along with a review and correction of the zone fares in line with real economic conditions. They filed those demands last month. When no solution came, they stopped driving. They say they kept the service going for months despite irregular payments - effectively financing public transport with their own money.

55 or 60 thousand euros, depending who you ask

Struga mayor Mendi Kjura confirms the municipality has debts, but stresses they were inherited from the previous local administration. By his account, the debt for primary school transport alone amounts to 3,432,000 denars, or roughly 55 thousand euros. Elsewhere the same mayor cites a figure of 60 thousand euros.

"Their demand is that the old, long-standing debt of 55 thousand euros be paid off. Payments are being made in stages. Since I took office as mayor, around one and a half million denars have already been paid from the municipal budget," Kjura says. He promises the obligations will be settled - but in two to three months, not in 15 days.

The operators say that proposal is unacceptable to them. "We cannot hold out another month, let alone wait three months in a situation where fuel and spare parts have gone up. The municipality is obliged to provide residents with transport. There are elderly people, there are children going to school. That is why there has to be a solution now," one of the drivers says.

Some have already pulled out entirely. The operators from Moroishta, Lozhani and Radozhda say they will not resume the business even once the debt is paid. Which means that even when the bill is settled, these villages have no guaranteed solution.

"Inherited debt" is the defence we hear from every new local administration in this country, and it is always true and always irrelevant to the person waiting for a bus. The debt was not inherited only from the previous mayor - it was inherited by the residents too, and they are paying it now with children who have no ride to school. The question is not whose fault it is. The question is why a sum of 55 thousand euros drags on for years inside an entire municipal budget, and only gets solved after the buses stop.