The campaign to remove illegal vendors and restore order in markets and the areas around them will continue in the coming days. Skopje Mayor Orce Gjorgjievski announced that the actions will not be limited to Čair, but will also extend to other municipalities.
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According to him, vendors have designated spaces inside markets where they can carry out their activities, so selling on boulevards, sidewalks or bicycle lanes will not be allowed.
Gjorgjievski spoke about the issue following a question from journalists regarding recent interventions in the Bit-Pazar area, where an operation against street vendors was carried out and around 500 kilograms of food products were confiscated. He made the statement after inspecting work on the bridge being built on Lublanska Street in Karposh.
The mayor said that restoring order in the capital had been one of his main goals since the beginning of his term.
“Since the beginning of my term, what we have been trying to do in the capital is restore order. And order is lacking,” Gjorgjievski said.
He added that some citizens withdraw after one or two warnings, but stressed that the rules on where selling is allowed must be followed by everyone.
“There are citizens who, after one or two warnings, react immediately and abandon these deviant practices. Everyone knows where they should sell. No one can sell in the middle of a boulevard, on a sidewalk, on a bicycle path and so on,” the mayor of Skopje said.
He explained that the operation was carried out in cooperation between the City of Skopje, city services, the Inspectorate, the Food and Veterinary Agency and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Gjorgjievski warned that such inspections would continue.
“If someone chooses to be fined ten times for the same offense that they repeat, that speaks to their character, not ours. Our duty is to restore order. Vendors have vacant spaces in the markets and they know where they should sell their goods or food. We have several markets, but the interventions will not be carried out only in Čair. We will also act in Kisela Voda, near the market, as well as in Centar, near the markets. In other words, we will intervene wherever necessary. The city must have order. At least I do not accept this, and I will not allow this phenomenon to be repeated in the future,” Gjorgjievski said.
Regarding the vendors, he repeated that there were vacant places in the markets and that it was clearly determined where goods and food products should be sold.
Speaking about the Post Office Shelter Centre, the mayor said that the facility should be given a new function and transformed into a space for young people as part of the “Skopje – Capital City of Culture” project.
“This is one of the projects that we believe we will adapt as a facility for young people, as part of the Skopje – Capital City of Culture project, where we will also make certain investments,” he said.
Gjorgjievski announced that the government, through the Ministry of Transport, was currently financing the reconstruction of the facility’s roof.
“This was a place that, as you remember, a former deputy prime minister and his associates wanted to use for another abnormal function – a cabaret or a club, I don’t know exactly what it was. Now the facility will be given its proper purpose and will serve as a space for young people,” he said.
Regarding the “General Mihajllo Apostolski” bridge in Gazi Baba, the mayor announced that the first section of the route had already been secured and the buildings had been demolished. According to him, work on installing curbs and creating connections with the access roads is expected to begin on Monday.
He recalled his promise that the bridge would be completed within his four-year term, but said he aimed to have the area operational during the first year of his term.
“I promised that I would complete it within four years, but by the first year of my term, the functionality of this area and the entire ‘General Mihajllo Apostolski’ bridge will be secured. This is the second-largest project to have stood as a monument in the City of Skopje for a decade,” Gjorgjievski said.
As the third capital project, he mentioned Boris Trajkovski Boulevard, where he expects construction work to be completed ahead of schedule, before New Year.
The fourth project, according to him, is the Momin Potok interchange, where work is progressing at an accelerated pace.
“The fourth is the Momin Potok interchange, where you can see that construction activities are progressing very, very quickly, and we will complete it by the end of this calendar year,” he said.
Regarding Skopje’s General Urban Plan, Gjorgjievski said that work on drafting it was continuing and that further information would be made public as soon as it became available.
The mayor stressed that transparency remained a priority for him and that he had not withheld information from the media, the public or citizens, either in the past or now.
“You know that I, as mayor of the city, both in the past and now—and I will remain so in the future—place transparency above everything. I have never hidden anything from the media, the public or citizens,” Gjorgjievski concluded.
