It is a long road to a truly free and democratic society in which the citizens are ensured with concrete, direct and comprehensive inclusion in decision-making, in every segment of life and the system. Despite all the declarations, and even concrete steps, the institutions are still suffering from serious proceduralism and bureaucracy. And not to mention the obstructions that are part of the hindering of the reforms. And not to mention at all the tolerating of those who are doing the obstructions, just so that we don’t spoil the day.

The diagnosis that has been repeated countless times is slowly starting not to be a valid justification. Yes, that is correct, the society is traumatized, while the state has been captured for too long, with ruined institutions, with deeply rooted and widely spread political corruption and clientalism. So, how far has the change progressed? That is the alarming issue that is hanging over the lives of the people, the ordinary ones, when they go to buy bread, when they go to the doctors, to the kindergartens or to a front desk…Corruption has to be eradicated, starting with the deletion of laws that legalize that corruption, and ending with the court processes in courts that are freed from the corruptive clutch of the Family’s corruptive regime. It can be in the opposite order, no problem.

No matter how much we think that the conditions are bad, they are in fact even worse. No matter how much we think that our country is marking success on a regional and international level, it could be better and faster, if the internal sources of destruction are removed from the big picture and the winds blowing from the east are blocked.

We saw that freedom from the criminal regime also implies freedom from the strong stench of the long decay. The disguise of the Potemkin Village has fallen, so now we can see in what kind of desert we have been living, we can see the crumbling of values and of the system. But we must finally shift from conclusions to action. Really, everyone’s had it with all the conclusions and diagnosing. What we do need is a cure – a decisive action for healing the society and the state.

We all say that the “regime captured the country”, which is totally true. But, in addition to the state, the structures of power also captured the society. After capturing the state, the political parties, meaning all the political parties, captured the society. They, however, were not the only ones who captured the society. After inserting their interests in all pores of the system, the oligarchs also occupied the society, in a similar way as the political parties. The parties and oligarchs have similar ways of narrowing the civic space, if not identical, so the results, that is, the consequences are ultimately the same, since those structures act almost from the same positions.

And even after the fall of Gruevski’ authoritarian criminal government, the civic space has stayed narrowed. Contrary to the declared, and even concrete efforts of the government, part of the institutions have not abandoned the old habits, and have remained rigid, massive and corrupt. The media, business and political centers of power still do not by far provide space for unhindered civic action.

Basically, they have imposed strong control over the media, through which they manipulate the public and have narrowed the civic space to an extent of suffocation. The political parties are the most powerful mobilizers of citizens, whereas the space for civic action usually ends as party activism or elitism, in which a critical number of citizens are not involved for making radical changes to the political culture in society.

And this is where the NGO’s and intellectuals come in.

Here it will be difficult to separate those who are bluffing from those who are sincere and committed. Just as it is difficult to separate patriotism as love of a country and commitment to its progress, from the destructive and dirty power of nationalism. The first ones bluff very well, whereas the second ones have too little space, and usually too little will to fight with windmills. Because, usually it seems that it is actually just a fight with windmills.

Translated by: Natasha Cvetkovska