Municipal inspectors in Skopje’s downtown Centar district demolished the unlawfully built terrace in the Amanet restaurant. The place is owned by Ljupco Ristovski, leader of the populist Integra party, who has been helping the ruling SDSM party in the past two election cycles.

It was widely assumed that the steel and glass terrace will be allowed to stand as gratitude for Ristovski’s services. Integra ran on a far, far right platform mixed with sci-fi elements during the July 15 elections, and won about 10,000 votes, some of whom, it is presumed, would have gone toward VMRO-DPMNE. And in the mayoral elections in Stip held yesterday, Integra nominated Simeon Polikarp, a well liked Afro-Macedonian in the elections who won about a 1,000 votes. He wasn’t even close to challenging the SDSM party candidate, who ran unopposed, but that helped SDSM push the turnout over 33 percent, which is a requirement to win the election in the first round.

Ristovski, who is an outspoken Evangelical and right wing commentator, was an adviser in the Gruevski Government before joining with Zaev and supporting his Colored Revolution, only to become his nominal critic.