Second half-time
The celebration after the first half, as well as the support of Arsovska by prominent chauvinists, is an indicator that it is neither for "Modern Skopje" nor for a multiethnic and unique Skopje, as it has been built in the last four years.
The first half of the local elections is over, and some have already started celebrating the victory of the "independent" candidate "For Modern Skopje". And the celebration was very modern. Some "modernists" celebrated with trumpets and drums in front of the baroque palace with magnificent chandeliers and again declared multiethnic Skopje a "VMRO city".
Other "modernists" began making execution lists, sending threats and lynching messages to dissidents. In just a few days, Skopje began to look like a dark city of conflicts from 2017, when political and ethnic hate speech spread through the streets.
But football fans know that the first half is only the first half. Anything can happen in the second half. The answer to the question "Who will win in Skopje?" Can be found only after the last whistle of the judge. Or, as English fans would say, "it's not over until the fat lady sings".
I remember very well the final of the Champions League in 2005, when at halftime Milan (red and black) led 3-0 against Liverpool (red). The "Milanese" started celebrating prematurely euphorically, but in the end the "reds" from Liverpool raised the trophy with a frantic applause of the whole audience. The lesson is that it is not celebrated after the first half even when it is 3: 0, let alone when the result is almost equal. But what we see after the first half of the local elections in Skopje is that the supporters of VMRO-DPMNE started behaving like the "Milanese" in 2005, although until the last whistle of the referee there is still much to play.
They humiliate and underestimate the Albanian voters again
How important are the non-Macedonian votes in the second round in the battle for mayor of Skopje, a battle that is considered the final of every local election? A lot. The creation of nationalist policies by VMRO-DPMNE and the underestimation of non-Macedonian votes is the main reason why they have not been able to form a parliamentary majority for years. The underestimation of those votes may be the reason for changing the result in the second half of the battle for mayor of Skopje.
I will give a few examples why the "modernists" could be surprised in Skopje in the second half.
First of all, a well-known journalist, VMRO-DPMNE propagandist, started sowing divisions and hatred in Skopje again, criminalizing entire municipalities in the city as "drug dealers" (residents of Saraj, Cair and Suto Orizari), because there Shilegov achieved great advantage. It will be interesting to see if the offended citizens of Saraj, Cair and Suto Orizari, who voted for Arsovska in the first round, will vote for her again or Shilegov's advantage in these municipalities will be even greater. Will the designation of voters from Cair, Saraj and Suto Orizari as criminal voters provoke revolt among the citizens of these municipalities and result in the loss of many of those over nine and a half thousand votes that Ms. Arsovska won in the first round?
According to what we managed to see, unfortunately, in the first round there was almost no offer to the voters from these municipalities. All we have seen so far in order to attract those voters from the VMRO-DPMNE candidate, were just pictures with walks through the Bazaar and Cair and meetings with citizens in the neighborhoods through Cair, and in Saraj neither. On the other hand, in the program of the current mayor we have specific promises such as the expansion of Cvetan Dimov Street, the parking lot over Bit-pazar, a new plan for public parking throughout Cair, a new library in Cair, a cultural center in Suto Orizari, a complete reconstruction of the sports center in Saraj, roundabout at the Saraj bridge, the junction at Momin Potok, etc.
Photographing anti-Albanian activists
Secondly, Arsovska proudly posed for a photo with the president of the Patriotic Institute, Aleksandar Pandov, who is well known for his anti-Albanian views among the Albanian population in Macedonia. Posting such pictures to the candidate who aspires to win Albanian votes in the second round sounds to me like the premature celebration of Milan fans at the halftime of the 2005 final. Will the appearance of Pandov on the photos of the candidate supported by VMRO-DPMNE motivate the thousands of Albanian voters who voted for her in the first round, to vote for her again? Personally, I doubt it.
The third example is the appearance of Danela Arsovska with Lenin Jovanovski, who became known to the public for his joint photos with Putin. The biker Lenin Jovanovski (as well as the "horseman" Pandov) were one of the most loyal supporters of the anti-Albanian movement "For a Common Macedonia", which in 2017 chanted anti-Albanian slogans "For a clean Macedonia" and sowed paranoia against the "Tirana Platform".
While anti-Albanian protests were held in Skopje in 2017 in which VMRO-DPMNE supporters sang songs against Albanians and chanted "pure Macedonia", Lenin's bikers supported them, and Aleksandar Pandov told TV Nova that there were no Albanians who wished her well. of Macedonia. Pandov was ridiculed in the article "Weekly Sabotage", where his anti-Albanian statement was released together with goals of the Macedonian national football team - Shaqiri, Ibraimi and Bardi.
It will be interesting to see if the Albanian voters who voted for "For Modern Skopje" will vote again after seeing that the VMRO-DPMNE candidate is celebrating with prominent anti-Albanian activists close to VMRO-DPMNE.
The masks for the electric buses also fell
Moreover, after Danela Arsovska appeared with the motorcyclist Lenin, instead of answering how much the 18-meter electric bus costs on her posters, and how much it will cost to purchase 250 such eco-buses, she stopped talking about purchasing electric buses. Instead of free transportation with 250 electric buses, she started talking about buying 150 CNG buses (like the MANs procured by Shilegov) and gradually adapting 100 buses to "alternative energy".
How to explain the fact that the candidate of VMRO-DPMNE, who advertised with electric buses, now does not promise to buy electric buses at all, but also started riding in MAN buses, such as the ones purchased by Shilegov?
Even mechanical engineers from JSP with 40 years of experience began to explain to Arsovska that electric buses cost 500.000 euros and more (and those of CNG - about 300.000 euros). For the procurement of so many buses with new bus depots and equipment, with hundreds of new mechanics, engineers and drivers, an expert from JSP clearly pointed out to Arsovska that "ONE BILLION does not patch us, even if it is from Taiwan."
In short, the masks began to fall for 250 electric buses gullible as the "Chilean billion". The celebration after the first half, as well as the support of Arsovska by prominent chauvinists, is an indicator that it is neither for "Modern Skopje", nor for a multiethnic and unique Skopje, as it has been built for the last four years. After her gullible promises to buy 250 electric buses, which did not last in the second half, a reversal in the result is certainly possible. Because, the match is played until the last minute, until the last whistle of the referee.