How many building booms can one city take?
As physical bridges go up, metaphorical ones fall down
By T.J. | SKOPJE
OBELIX, the fat Gaulish friend of cartoon character Asterix, has a catchphrase: "These Romans are crazy!" Walk around Skopje, the Macedonian capital, and you find yourself thinking the same about Macedonians. I don't mean this to be snide. But the pace of building in and around the city does bring to mind the Mansions of the Gods.
Skopje has long needed sprucing up. But opponents of Nikola Gruevski, who have long accused the prime minister of populist nationalism, will hardly be dissauded by the nature of the construction boom (which the government has christened Skopje 2014). With an election in the offing, Mr Gruevski will no doubt enjoy taking credit for the new structures mushrooming throughout the city centre.
More from Eastern approaches
Transylvanian surprise
A big bump in voter turnout puts a competent ethnic German, Klaus Iohannis, in the presidency
Shale fail
Poland hoped shale gas would free it from Russia, but finds there is no getting around geology
A minister comes out
Edgars Rinkevics enters the culture war with eastern European conservatives, and with Russia