He is now concentrating on relatively non-controversial projects such as a city-wide clean-up (though he tactlessly, and unsuccessfully, asked the workers to collect the rubbish after hours without charging overtime).
EU's envoy to Macedonia, who, on the eve of his arrival on June 27th, proposed rather tactlessly that the Slav-led government should hold its nose and negotiate with the rebels: a realistic assessment, perhaps, but one that so enraged the Slavs that he was obliged to backtrack within 24 hours.