In Conversation With Amar Mecinović, Left Candidate For Mayor Of Skopje

On the 19th of October this year the first round of the local elections in North Macedonia were held. This country is home to one of the fastest growing left-wing parties in Europe: Levica (the Left). Since its founding ten years ago it has experienced a gradual rise in its number of elected officials. In the 2020 parliamentary elections two MPs from its ranks, including the party leader Dimitar Apasiev, took office, and in the 2024 parliamentary elections they expanded the parliamentary group to six MPs. At a local level it gained three municipal council seats across North Macedonia in the 2017 local elections, before achieving 49 in 2021 and then 65 in the ballot held on the 19th of October. The most astonishing result of all was that the Levica candidate Amar Mecinović entered the second round in the mayoral contest for the Macedonian capital Skopje in which he will face Orce Gjorgjievski, who is backed by an electoral alliance encompassing the parties currently in charge of the national government and most of the municipalities: the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE, the VLEN coalition (a group of parties representing Albanians, the second-largest ethnic community nationwide) and the nominally centre-left ZNAM. This is the first time that a candidate unaffiliated with the establishment parties has the chance to win the mayoralty of the largest and most populous city in North Macedonia, which has been designated as the European Capital of Culture for 2028. 

The growth in electoral support for Levica was driven mainly by the disillusionment that many Macedonians feel towards the establishment parties and the desire for a third option to vote for. Since its independence from Yugoslavia, Macedonia has been ruled either by VMRO-DPMNE or by the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM). Both these parties are known for their clientelistic practices, corruption and authoritarian tendencies. In particular, the SDSM was responsible for changing the country’s constitutional name from the Republic of Macedonia to the Republic of North Macedonia in 2019 using illegal means in order to supposedly end the country’s name dispute with Greece. Because of these issues, (North) Macedonia is considered to be a hybrid regime, i.e. a political system that mixes elements of democracy and autocracy. The persistence of corruption and the lack of political accountability within the country was evident even in the aftermath of a tragedy that hit the Macedonian town of Kočani in March when 62 people (mostly youth) lost their lives in an unlicensed nightclub that caught fire. 

In these local elections Levica was positioned to take advantage of popular dissatisfaction with the VMRO-DPMNE-led government. However, the Macedonian Agency for Audio and Audiovisual Media Services excluded the party from having paid political advertising on television, radio and billboards, despite the fact it has six MPs. This act of censorship, unseen in Macedonia since 1991, led to Levica filing various lawsuits in national courts and then taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights. They also spoke to the representatives of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe about this issue, which was mentioned in their reports about the recent municipal ballots. So Levica had to resort to social media strategies, outdoor canvassing and participating in television debates and interviews where their candidates were invited. Regardless of this almost total media blackout, the party managed to achieve a historic breakthrough in the Skopje mayoral contest where Amar Mecinović won 13.18 per cent of the vote, enough to enter the run off against the government’s front runner Gjorgjievski, who was ahead with 39.41 per cent of the vote share. If Mecinović wins on November 2nd, he would be the first Marxist to hold the Skopje mayoralty since Macedonia's independence from socialist Yugoslavia. 

1) What motivated you to run for the position of mayor of Skopje? How does your professional and political experience so far prepare you for such an important position?

What motivates me is that I have held the post of city councillor from early 2022 until May 2024 when I became an MP. Based on the experience I've received in the city council of Skopje, I am well acquainted with all the problems and issues the city is facing. Together with the council group which we [Levica] had within the city council of Skopje we accentuated all the troubles and everyday problems that ordinary Skopje citizens have and in this time span it became clear to us that the political will of the city government is foremost the political will of the business elite which has an interest in shaping the everyday life of ordinary citizens so as to maximise commercial gain to the detriment of what public enterprises should do. So basically in the simplest sense our interest is to shift the political will within the city government so that it will serve the ordinary citizens of Skopje and not only big business and the elites which have shaped city life so far.

2) What makes these local elections in Macedonia similar and/or different from previous ones?

The difference is that our political option, which is a socialist option in Macedonia, has imposed itself as the second biggest political factor within the city of Skopje and this is a huge change for Macedonian politics since Skopje politics and Macedonian politics have been dominated by the two main parties which in this case are the conservative VMRO-DPMNE and the social democrat SDSM. So for the first time in Skopje local politics Levica is going to be in the runoff for the mayoral race and this is the first time in Macedonian politics that a third party is going to be in the biggest race on the biggest stage of Macedonian politics when it comes to municipal elections. This is not only big in the context of local elections but big in the history of Macedonian politics and a shift in Macedonian politics which will have political consequences in the year that will follow and this means that Levica will be the strongest force in the next parliamentary elections in Skopje when it comes to the Left block and in many elections to come.

3) What difference have the local councillors of Levica made in the last four years in their respective municipalities? 

First and foremost in the political culture of Macedonia. The local councils have never had center stage when it comes to political discourse. The political discourse has been dominated by mayors and their executive power when it comes to the local level in Macedonia. But since Levica has entered the municipal councils all over the country we have popularised the role of the council within the decision-making process for the municipalities and the local life of our citizens. And we have succeeded in articulating points of interest which have been abandoned in the previous mandates of these municipalities. In the case of Skopje to be exact where I have had the privilege to be a city councillor we pioneered the question of public transport as the question of utmost priority for the citizens of Skopje because for us public transport is a question of social politics as well as a question of environmental politics. And this has been a shift from what we have seen previously because in previous mandates the local governments have always been keen on privatising and outsourcing all services which are usually provided by the city and our councillors went in a completely different direction. They went in the direction of imposing a point of view which presupposes that public services should be given by public enterprises and by the public sector first and foremost because the needs of our people cannot be  subject to profiteering and generating wealth for individuals who are connected to political parties.

4) What are the main issues in Skopje at the moment and how do you intend to resolve them? 

So firstly there is the issue of public transport which has been an immense problem for the citizens of Skopje for the past four and more years especially because there was a split between the mayor and the city council in the last mandate. A split which happened because of private interests between the [VMRO-DPMNE] party leadership which endorsed this candidate and the candidate herself [Danela Arsovska, the current mayor of Skopje]. So in the last four years there has not been a single new bus bought for the city. Our citizens have been riding old and unsafe buses. So firstly, we think that Skopje should get a new fleet of buses which will be reliable, eco-friendly and will give quality public transport to our citizens. And we are thinking of reinventing the grid upon which these buses circulate. Right now we have ineffective and old, anachronistic bus lines in the city which are the result of the reality from a couple of decades ago and are not what the city needs right now. So we plan on reinventing the way and model in which these buses commute. For us the biggest priority for our [city] government would be the revitalisation of the railways which are present in Skopje but are not used for city transport. They are only used for freight trains which transit through our city and have their final destinations in other towns of Macedonia. So we are thinking of getting these railways used for passenger services. So we plan on focusing on developing the railway infrastructure in the city that we already have and ultimately creating new railway infrastructure in the city. Our most ambitious project for the city is to have a city train which will run through the core of the city and we think that this is complementary to the continental and world trend we've been seeing in urban dwellings. For example, many major cities in Europe and in the world are moving towards railways as the model of choice for their respective cities because railways are showing that they're the most effective and efficient way of getting citizens from one part of a bustling city to another. So we're planning on going into that direction and that leads us into the next big question for our citizens and that is the effects of air pollution. Firstly we think that giving our citizens an effective public transport system will lead to the pollution caused by cars being lessened when Skopje citizens will have the alternative of an effective and eco-friendly public transport system. In addition to that, we think that the fight against air pollution has to happen on many fronts and it needs to start by tackling the sources of air pollution and not only its symptoms. Our city governments up until now have always treated the symptoms of air pollution and usually to the detriment of the poorer parts of our society. For example, there have been talks by my opponents of introducing restrictions on moving into the urban core of our city, imposing taxes and maybe imposing models of having certain registration plates and then others on other days to be able to commute through the city centre. But all of these things are punishing the ordinary citizens of Skopje who are not the ones who need to bear the consequences of air pollution. We're planning on tackling industrial air pollution within the city. But that needs to happen on many levels. Firstly, we want to deepen the methods in which our inspection services can work within the limits of their objectives. That means getting more inspectors within our inspection service and getting drones so that they can get better results when they go and do these inspections. And of course we want to collaborate with the inspection services of the Ministry of Ecology because they're the ones that have licenses to inspect industrial capacities and we think that these are the ones which are the most responsible for the air quality in our city right now.

5) The majority of members of the Skopje City Council as well as the mayors of the municipalities within the city of Skopje belong to different parties, mostly the centre-right VMRO-DPMNE and their ethnic Albanian allies in the VLEN coalition which are currently in charge of the country. How do you intend to cooperate with them if you are elected?

I will be completely honest with this. In a perfect scenario our party would be in the position to form a majority in the council but that is not the case and we need to work with the material conditions that we're presented with and that means that I am completely open to collaborating with all councillor groups within the city council if I get the support of our citizens. So that means that I am open to collaborating with the government majority in this case within the city council but also with the government for projects that will benefit the citizens of Skopje and all other municipal council groups, especially the independents in the previous mandate with whom we have had many issues in which we found common language and issues that we both prioritise. So there are many ways in which the city council can function for the benefit of Skopje citizens. But all that we need to know at this point is that it's a question of openness. It's a question of compromise and we're ready to compromise for the betterment of the lives of our citizens. I would like  to contextualize this answer for the international reader. I have been mentioning the word ‘compromise’ many times because in these elections there has been a dominant narrative articulated by media outlets close to the government parties that the only good scenario for the citizens of Skopje is that they win because in that way there will be no obstructions from the central government. and from other Skopje municipalities where they will have their mayors but that is just something that we cannot accept because that is political blackmail. The citizens of Skopje will have a choice between one side that is blackmailing us into accepting their rule and on the other side our option is that we are willing to work with everyone for the benefit of the citizens of Skopje. 

6) Levica was under media censorship during this local election cycle. How did you overcome this? Is there any chance of having it overturned before the second round?

For the first time in the history of Macedonia, one party was barred from advertising its campaign on our televisions, on our radios and on the billboards. So for the first time in the history of Macedonia, we have an exclusion of one party from the democratic privileges which are there to guarantee equal footing when it comes to political actors fighting for the mandate of the people. And this is a red alarm for the democratic situation in Macedonia. The conservative government has been showcasing authoritarian tendencies in the year and a half in which they have been governing and this is a tendency that will only deepen and all of this is a product of their absolute rule of our country. They have been governing on all levels of Macedonian politics. That means they now hold the presidential office, the central government as well as the local governments and for the citizens of Skopje now there is a choice to democratise our political ambience in the country so that the conservatives do not have another mandate during which they can rule absolutely and impose further authoritarian measures. But when it comes to this campaign, even though we were censored we still managed to tell our story and to communicate all the main points of the campaign with the citizens of Skopje because we were really inventive in the way that we promoted our campaign on social media. We were really inventive when it came to on the ground marketing and canvassing and all that resulted in a historical entrance to the second round of the mayoral elections for the city of Skopje. And this all shows that when an idea is ripe then it will resonate with the people for whom it is intended. So there will be no change to the situation when it comes to our being censored and this will only differentiate my position when it comes to the second round because Skopje citizens will have a choice between one candidate who will be supported by the system and will be present on all forms of marketing and then we have us who will not be able to campaign to the fullest effect and that will only benefit us because now Skopje citizens have a definite choice.

7) What have the major political, social and economic changes in Macedonia been since the last local elections in 2021? How have they contributed  to the growth in electoral support for Levica? 

Firstly the political reality has changed a lot because in these years  we have had the most unsuccessful mandate in the history of the city of Skopje and the quality of life in Skopje has worsened a lot and that result came from the politics and policies of the establishment parties. The citizens of Skopje are disillusioned by the programmes and platforms of these establishment parties which have shown no results in the past years and that has benefited us in the sense that people of Skopje are ready for a change. They're ready to give their support to an option that has not been part of the governmental structures in the past. And on the other hand, we have a new conservative government in the last year and a half which replaced the social democrat government. And what happened is that there was no real substantial change in the lives of ordinary people in Macedonia and that has heightened the animosity of our citizens towards establishment politics and all of this has contributed to the rise of our political option within mainstream Macedonian politics. In the last year and a half especially our parliamentary work has been that of a party which is leading the opposition fight within the parliament. So many political conditions have changed and have been produced by firstly the disillusionment of citizens with mainstream parties and secondly with our vigorous work within the parliament and in the municipal councils across Macedonia.

8) Which cities in Europe or elsewhere do you see as positive examples of functioning local governments that abide by left-wing principles? 

Many cities and many individual policies. I would actually like to comment more on individual policies which we find an inspiration to us. There are many cities in Europe in the past few years which have been collectivising their electrodistribution grids for example. These include cities in the UK and in Germany and it's something that we regard as something positive that we would like to implement in Skopje but in the ways that we can. So what this means is that our platform looks into starting an era of Skope politics which will see our enterprises generating their own electricity for the needs of our own city enterprises. That means that we would like to see less money go towards private electric distribution schemes and more to the ecosystem of our own institutions creating and expanding these capacities and resources. On the other hand, we have a lot of examples from cities who have been developing housing policies which are for the benefit of ordinary people and to the detriment of big business such as those seen in Berlin and in Austria and in other countries. So that means building communal housing, building apartment buildings which are under the property of the city. So all of these models are something that we would like to see in our city. And as an individual city example, I would take the city of Graz in Austria led by the Communist Party of Austria with its mayor Elke Kahr given the fact that I met her shortly before the campaign started and everything that she and the Communist Party of Austria have done in Graz is incredibly inspirational and and is something that we would like to see implemented in Skopje as well.

9) Skopje has been nominated as the European capital of culture for 2028. What are your proposals regarding this important occasion for the Macedonian capital?

This is a great opportunity for Skopje to attract many visitors from across the continent. It's an opportunity for our local economy to generate economic activity which will benefit the citizens of Skopje and all of this needs to be approached with utmost attention and our city government would plan on having this occasion maximised to the benefit of the city. So what we plan is to financially support our cultural institutions which will in turn create cultural programmes for this occasion. So visitors from across the continent can expect Skopje to host them in the most positive way and we plan on having a cultural programme which will run for 365 days straight. There will be events and different occasions in the sense of traditional cultural events and alternative cultural events. But all of these will have to be available and cheap so our citizens can enjoy these beautiful occasions as well as all visitors from across the continent. 

10) Finally, regardless of the result of the second round, what are your thoughts on the future of Macedonian politics and of the Macedonian Left?

Following the elections, regardless of what the results in the second round will be, the new reality for Macedonian politics is that Levica is the second strongest party in the capital city and that is going to reflect the future of Macedonian politics and for us it will be of utmost priority  to strengthen this position within the city of Skopje. We plan on working to win the city of Skopje in the following parliamentary elections which are set to happen in two and a half years from now and ultimately contend again for the position of mayor of Skopje in 2029 because what happened in these elections will reverberate with the elections that will follow and we are ready to work on providing the citizens of Skopje with a viable political option which will forever change what Macedonian politics has been to them so far.