“A successful census for local self-government means better planned infrastructure, well-planned parks, squares, public spaces, sustainable traffic, a developed local economy, increased energy efficiency and a healthy environment,” Shilegov said.

“As a country, we have not conducted a census for 19 years, and if we are at least a little responsible, we in the local self-government have no right to fear the obligations for the census, because that data is the basis for creating policies at the local level,” said Petre Shilegov, Mayor of Skopje, on the CIVIL panel, “How can the census be (mis)used?”.

“We as ZELS had a meeting with the SSO to make preparations for conducting the census in terms of infrastructure, spatial and technical, and above all part of the staff, and I think we are ready to meet the requirements of the Statistical Office that will be submitted to us ( mayors).

It is very important to get the data both as a state and as units of local self-government, because that data is the basis for creating development policies in the units of local self-government in the micro-economic planning of the part that municipalities have as competencies. We will also receive data on certain scientific researches that take place at the state level.

For us, the census will be useful for planning good infrastructure, to be able to plan parks, squares, public spaces, to have sustainable traffic because we do not have accurate data on the number of households or vehicles… These data are important for the City of Skopje so that we know where to invest in the infrastructure, but so far we are going to experience and data that we have from before,” said Shilegov.

He says they have had difficulty implementing the activities in recent years.

“If you have Granap, you will have to make a census once a year. You can’t run your business without an inventory, so an inventory is made every 10 years so that long-term policies can be created.

We have no other choice, we must realize this obligation. The standards applied by the SSO are in line with UN and Eurostat standards.

As ZELS since 2018 as a preparation of the Law on Census we had declared members in the council of the Statistical Office, it is Borjanco Micevski the mayor of Kriva Palanka and Fatmir Dehari, the mayor of Kichevo in order to contribute or our thoughts as ZELS within this law, “he said.

Shilegov stressed that the local self-government will be a service and will meet the requirements of the SSO for successful conduct of the census. He says he is not even thinking about postponing the census, adding that the sooner we complete the census, the sooner we will continue with the process.

“If we postpone this census, then we will go beyond the methods and standards for such an operation, it is no coincidence that this period was chosen as the most favorable period.

Attempts at politicization and boycott of the census by certain political structures are an attempt to destroy the processes that we simply have to do as a state. We have no right to be destructive towards the state or the society, at least towards the citizens,” Shilegov stressed.

The Mayor of Skopje appeals to the citizens to respond en masse to the obligation for the census and the people who will do this work in the field to be well received in every household.

“Political hypocrisy is what those who resist the census are doing,” Shilegov said, adding that “in this phase they will call for destruction and delay, and in another phase there will be accusations why the census is not complete.”

“In the City of Skopje, they criticize me for creating a park and spending 300 thousand euros, because it was a pandemic and it is not time to do such things, and next week they criticize me for not creating an amusement park. I was a fierce critic when I was in the opposition, but I also offered solutions to the problems and how to act appropriately,” Shilegov said.

He says that the opposition political structure is a structure that can only cause panic and false news.

“I will take you back a little bit, where are the refugee camps, where is the country torn apart due to the Prespa Agreement, while negotiations were underway with Bulgaria to start a date for negotiations with the EU, we had statements in the sense of ‘this will be signed with Bulgaria, this will be signed’ , and none of that happened…

“We have no right to stop the strategic processes of the state due to daily political points,” Shilegov stressed.