Slashed Tyres in Tetovo, a Prosecutor Without a Passport, a Second Budget Revision, a Wall on the Ohrid Shore

Tetovo: the checks stalled in the car park

In the morning, staff from the Tetovo Centre for Social Work were supposed to go from address to address and check who receives social assistance and how. The vehicles went nowhere - someone had slashed their tyres, and when police asked for the footage, it turned out the building had no power during exactly that period. The timing is hard to ignore: Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski announced in recent days that more than 4,500 recipients had been found taking money without meeting the conditions. A slashed tyre isn't major damage. The message to every official who has to knock on someone's door is much bigger.

A prosecutor under investigation, a Judicial Council with no next step

The man who runs the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Bitola, the institution that oversees the prosecution offices in Bitola, Prilep, Ohrid, Struga and Resen, has been left without his passport. OJO GOKK claims he lobbied for lower sentences or a better position for suspects and defendants in at least four cases. The crime has the word "reward" in its name, but the official statements so far say not a word about money, and nobody requested detention.

In Kumanovo, meanwhile, the Judicial Council voted 8 in favour to establish that the president of the Basic Court overstepped her powers, following a complaint by 75 employees who allege insults, fear and constant surveillance. She calls the accusations unfounded. What follows the vote - nobody is saying for now.

A second budget revision and numbers that don't add up

The government has adopted the second revision of the 2026 Budget: revenue and spending are each cut by about 86 million euros, explained by the reduced excise duty and VAT on fuel. Officially the deficit stays at 4.1 percent of GDP, but according to the fiscal counter, as of October 6 it already stands at 50.2 billion denars - almost 4 billion above the annual plan. Economic analyst Siniša Pekevski says revenue was "badly planned", while there's no major crisis.

September inflation is 2.7 percent; prices were flat month-on-month, but food got more expensive for the second month in a row. And one number from the airports: 3.3 million passengers in nine months and 29 percent growth, but almost two out of every three passengers in Skopje fly Wizz Air. A record year hanging on one airline.

Sofia confirmed a meeting, Split added a condition

Foreign ministers Timčo Mucunski and Velislava Petrova-Chamova are due to meet in Sofia on the sidelines of the Corridor 8 conference. Bulgaria confirmed the meeting, but the note says the format "will be determined subsequently" - maybe a bilateral, maybe just a quick word on the side. Meanwhile, the European Commission is proposing to move member states' veto to the end of the negotiations.

In Split, nine EU members declared that glorifying genocide is becoming an obstacle to joining the Union. Serbia wasn't mentioned by name, but everyone knows who it's about. The list of conditions for Balkan candidates got one item longer.

The state wrote it down itself: we're emptying

The Draft Spatial Plan to 2040, presented in Bitola, forecasts that Macedonia will keep losing population. Settlements with 100 residents or fewer make up almost half of all settlements, yet about one percent of people live in them. About 114,000 more flats have been built than projected, almost a third of flats are unoccupied - and the experts name easier access to housing as the first measure against emigration. The flats exist. They're out of reach.

"It takes us 6 hours by train from Bitola to Skopje," one expert told the room. The plan promises 90 minutes, but for now those are planning guidelines, not projects with deadlines.

The shore, the air and the law that deletes

On the shore near Biljana's Springs in Ohrid, a stone wall is going up, in the protected zone of a UNESCO-listed lake. Mayor Kiril Pecakov sent an inspection, but didn't say who is building, what or whether there are any permits - he's waiting for the report. The machinery doesn't fall from the sky.

Before MPs are amendments to the Law on the Environment that delete the ban on rebuilding polluting industry less than five kilometres from a populated area, as well as the articles on contaminated sites - exactly the ones that cover Lojane, OHIS and Jugohrom. The ministry presents them as alignment with the EU, even though the European Commission noted that very ban in its own report. And in Skopje, before heating season has even started, the air is getting worse: Rektorat measured 130 micrograms of PM10 in one hour.

A park and a kindergarten, with deadlines still to be announced

The illegal dump in Karpoš is becoming an 86,000-square-metre park. The waste has been cleared, but no deadline or price has been announced. And nine years after the fire, the "8 April" kindergarten in Šuto Orizari has 250 places, with support from Norway, Switzerland and UNDP. The teachers will come "as soon as possible".

A prison escape, an attack a day later

A man escaped from prison in Strumica, and just a day later attacked his former partner, a 25-year-old woman from Šuto Orizari, and took her away by force. For now, the Interior Ministry has only initials and "measures to clear up the case".

The region and the war

On Putin's 74th birthday, Ukraine got 70 missiles and at least 11 dead, and in Pryluky rescuers are searching the rubble of a five-storey building. The war is also sailing towards the Balkan coast: in Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea, two ships were attacked, one is on the seabed, and Sofia says it doesn't know whose drones they were.

In Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić is going for the prime minister's job and wants an absolute majority, while linking his opponents to Kurti, Plenković and Đukanović. In Bosnia, Milorad Dodik is free of sanctions, and the gas pipeline ended up with a firm founded four days after the deal, run by people close to Trump.

Sport: a record without a win

Pelister captain Kuzmanovski scored 15 goals and broke his own European record, but a four-goal lead melted away in Gdańsk. A night like that is remembered even without a win. In basketball, MZT lost to Iraklis, and Monaco is switching off the lights after twelve years, while the EuroLeague's richest clubs lock themselves into their own club.

The heavier part of the day has a common denominator: institutions that know how to announce an inspection, a working group or a format that "will be determined subsequently", and then wait for a report. The tyres in Tetovo will be replaced within an hour. The answer to who didn't want the checks to go ahead will take longer.