In order not to be in lockdown until the New Year, or perhaps until next summer, this pre-election agony must stop. July is good for elections as it also has the symbolism of the harvest of what every party or candidate for deputy has planted from 2016 onwards.
Author: Xhelal Neziri
From April 19, when the disease in North Macedonia marked its peak with 977 cases, the number of patients dropped by 30 every day, while the number of those who survived the virus increased. Thus, in early May, there were about 600 active cases of the new corona virus.
May began with a protracted police hour, which exhausted citizens by keeping them locked up. From May 1 to May 6, the number continued to decline due to institutional action on the ground.
Then things changed. The reopening of the date topic for holding early elections also changed the direction of the curve. Instead of the number of active cases on May 21 being zero, with healed patients, today it is 422. This number is close to that of May 5, when the active cases were 427. So, for two weeks we have kept constant the number of patients and today it tends to increase even more.
This is the result of unreasonable releasing of measures, which aims only at fulfilling the desire of the majority of the people to return to an imaginary reality, without the deadly virus. This collective impatience stems from a lack of trust in institutions, political parties, religious authorities, the media, universities and scientific institutes. To be more direct – people do not believe that coronavirus exists after they have lost faith in politicians, imams, doctors, journalists and scientists. Most of them think that lockdown has other purposes (5G, microchips, illuminati) and that all those who appeal for care and observance of the measures have concrete personal interests.
The populism of the ruling parties, the desire to please the people and not to lead them in this dangerous time, made the coronavirus return, at a time when other countries are on the verge of victory over it. The undeclared pre-election campaign had a negative impact on efforts to eradicate the virus. Police became more tolerant of disrespecting the police watch and preventive measures (protective masks, social distance), the government began to “turn a blind eye” to religious communities who organize collective rituals and allow ruling party activists to carry out humanitarian and political activities during the lockdown.
The fact that today, – when we had to celebrate the victory over the virus – we still face the disease is the result of the electoral agony that began in October 2019. From this moment, when the country faced the French and Dutch veto on the start date of EU membership talks, early parliamentary elections appeared on the horizon. Since then we have been in an undeclared campaign where it is not governed for the citizens, but for the voters. The parties do not think about the general interest, that is, about the eradication of coronavirus, but about the narrow party interest – the collection of as many votes as possible. In this context, the absurdity lies in the fact that, although the easing of measures poses a risk to public health, it still brings political points.
In order not to be in lockdown until the New Year, or perhaps until next summer, this pre-election agony must stop. July is good for elections as it also has the symbolism of the harvest of what every party or candidate for deputy has planted from 2016 onwards.