Justice, they say, is blind. For those who may have forgotten, this means that justice must apply equally to all, regardless of whether one is powerful or merely an ordinary citizen, rich or poor, influential or invisible.
But in our story, justice is not blind. It keeps winking at those in power.
When the judiciary becomes an extended arm of the executive branch, courts cease to be arenas of truth and become theatres of political revenge.
Law and justice are being systematically turned into weapons. The spectrum of compromised justice is dangerously wide. It begins at the top, with high-profile court cases involving major actors – proceedings that only resemble the fight against corruption, while in essence functioning as orchestrated political hunts.
But it does not end there. The heavy hand of the state inevitably descends upon the guardians of the public interest. The court cases against independent media, civil society organisations, and critical intellectuals are more than disturbing. These are cases loaded with evident elements of SLAPPs – strategic lawsuits against public participation – designed not to seek justice, but to bankrupt, exhaust, and ultimately silence dissenting voices.
The empty shell of democracy
What does a captured judiciary mean for a country? It is the quiet, bureaucratic death of democracy. When judges and prosecutors wait for a phone call before making a decision, the Constitution is reduced to a mere list of suggestions.
The use of SLAPP lawsuits against journalists and civil society is especially insidious. It creates a chilling effect in which self-censorship becomes the only viable survival strategy for civil society.
A state in which corporate giants become targets of political extortion, while intellectuals are dragged through years of fabricated court proceedings, is not a functioning democracy. It is an oligarchy dressed in democratic robes – a system in which the law is applied selectively, solely to protect the loyal and punish the critics.
The withdrawal of foreign investments
If domestic critics are silenced, foreign investors simply leave.
Capital is known to flee risk and unpredictability. When foreign investors assess a country, they look beyond tax incentives and cheap labor. They look for legal certainty, the sanctity of contracts, and impartial dispute resolution.
If a foreign board of directors sees that high-profile corporate cases are being decided by political decree rather than commercial law, they will take their money elsewhere.
Why would anyone invest tens of millions in a country where your accounts can be frozen, your reputation destroyed, or your operations halted simply because you have fallen out of favor with the ruling elite?
A politicised judiciary is the ultimate deterrent to serious, long-term foreign direct investment. Instead of attracting reputable global companies, the country becomes a playground only for opportunistic capital willing to play dirty.
The European mirage
Then there is the eternal, loudly proclaimed goal of EU integration.
But European integration is not a ritual of declarations, flags, protocol meetings, and laws passed overnight. Nor is it merely a catalogue of regulations, trade rules, administrative reforms, or access to European funds. At its core, the European project is supposed to be a political and moral commitment to democracy, human rights, equality, accountability, and the rule of law.
This is precisely where the contradiction becomes impossible to hide.
For years, the political debate in North Macedonia has been dominated by the dispute with Bulgaria and the constitutional amendments required under the EU negotiating framework. The government and its supporters present the issue almost exclusively as an identity threat, a bilateral humiliation, or an externally imposed injustice. Bulgaria, on the other hand, insists that the matter is no longer simply a bilateral dispute, but part of the European negotiating framework itself.
But while the public is mobilized around identity fears, the deeper question is conveniently pushed aside. What kind of state are we trying to bring into the European Union?
A country cannot claim to defend its identity on the road to Europe while dismantling the very European values that make that road meaningful. It cannot speak of dignity while turning justice into a weapon. It cannot demand respect from Brussels while treating judges and prosecutors as politically subordinate figures who execute party orders and carry out political revenge.
At the same time, Brussels cannot escape its own responsibility. The EU is often painfully slow, inconsistent, and too willing to cash out appeasement policies as “stability.” Instead of insisting on strict controls, genuine accountability, and measurable democratic standards, it too often rewards political theatre, formal compliance, and carefully staged reform language. In the name of keeping the process alive, it sometimes helps preserve the illusion that progress is being made even when institutions are being hollowed out from within.
A country cannot claim to defend its identity on the road to Europe while dismantling the very European values that make that road meaningful
Independent media can easily see what hides behind the PR façade. What a more careful look into the reality will discover politically orchestrated corporate pressure, judicial harassment of civil society and intellectuals, and a justice system increasingly vulnerable to political command.
North Macedonia, like other Balkan countries, should not expect to sit at the European table while authoritarian justice is practiced at home. But Europe, too, cannot claim credibility if it continues to confuse managed stagnation – or, more precisely, managed paralysis – with stability, and diplomatic politeness with democratic progress.
The widening gap between pro-European rhetoric from political podiums and autocratic tactics inside courtrooms is actively sabotaging North Macedonia’s European future. Strong public support for EU membership is important, but it also reveals an uncomfortable truth. For many, Europe is imagined more as a source of money, mobility, and economic opportunity than as a community of values, rules, and responsibilities.
That is the real European mirage… A political class that speaks the language of integration while practicing the habits of capture. A society that wants the benefits of Europe but too often tolerates the erosion of the very principles on which Europe stands. And a Brussels bureaucracy that too often accepts the performance of reform instead of demanding its substance.
Integration cannot succeed by passing laws overnight and then waiting for someone to magically bring the country into the EU. It requires institutions that are independent in practice, not only on paper. It requires courts that serve justice, not power. And it requires a European Union willing to defend its own principles with more courage, consistency, and seriousness than it has often shown.
The final price
A state in which the government uses courts as weapons against its own economy and its sharpest minds is a state actively sabotaging its own future.
The government must not be allowed to use justice as a weapon of political discipline. This may sound naïve to some, because it has been repeated countless times, but the country will remain captured for as long as people surrender to apathy. That is exactly what those in power are counting on.
Until the judicial hammer begins to fall independently – free from the weight of political pressure above it – the state will remain captured.
The only guarantee left for citizens will then be an economically stagnant, democratically hollow, and endlessly stuck country, entrenched before the gates of Europe, no matter how open those gates may appear.
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