No one has a mandate for amnesty
Slobodanka Jovanovska
Editor in Chief of Nezavisen Vesnik
Who gave mandate to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to offer amnesty? Although, after his speech in the Parliament, SDSM officials tried to persuade the public that he spoke only for reconciliation, forgiveness, understanding… he himself did not deny it, although he had the opportunity, and he did not explain why he would pay “a political price” if behind such political empty phrases he did not put to the table what he had claimed for months would never happen – release the responsible for the April 27th events from the criminal prosecution.
Yesterday, Nikola Gruevski appeared in Parliament just to laugh to his face, for which no investigation for the April 27 events has been started, although there are unofficial rumors that all detained people revealed the truth and now everyone knows who the organizers of the coup attempt are. The size of Zaev’s power to forgive surprised some of the MPs, who claimed yesterday they first heard of the offer during his address in the Assembly. Not having the courage to admit that he made a mistake in the referendum, that the Prespa Agreement could not be adopted, that he is in power because the opposition dictates the political decisions, he took the easiest way he could find – to put stab yet another knife in the back of the rule of law.
And all those who took to the streets to overthrow the regime of Nikola Gruevski and VMRO-DPMNE did this primarily for one reason – so that everyone involved in crime, abuse and degradation of Macedonia to be held responsible for their deeds, as a legal and as a normal democratic country. With this motive, a large number of citizens voted for SDSM believing that the wounds on Zaev’s face are a guarantee that those who put our country on the brink of ruin on April 27th and who wanted to kill for a position and to stay forever in power will face a well-deserved punishment. With the announcement yesterday, however much it is relativized by SDSM, Zaev is on the way to bring down the main promise from his election programme and everyone who voted for him to turn against him and his party. As things are going, Zaev is on his way to become the biggest political loser in Macedonia, along with Minister Nikola Dimitrov. Even if the Prespa Agreement is accepted, it had no such weight to relativize the disappointment of letting criminal go free, and the fact that with his forgiveness, the Mafia is still running the state. Blackmailed, and this transparent in showing that he is being blackmailed, Zaev will inevitably face a lot of concessions because the game is not run by him, but by VMRO-DPMNE. While he is convincing the opposition MPs, who are acting as if they are intimidated, to press on the “yes” button, he will have to accept all their amnesty requests one by one, and the question is whether that will be enough, because after all this VMRO-DPMNE can go to elections and win, because SDSM and Zaev will already have nothing left to promise to the voters. What the Prime Minister should know is that this battle does not lead him to victory and that the goodwill to yield in politics, especially in Macedonia, is understood only as powerlessness, to bargain and to keep the position. It is one thing, as Ljubco Georgievski did at the time for the Framework Agreement, to give in for an agreement that the entire international community is calling for in favor of Macedonia, and it is a completely different thing to give in to such an agreement, and cause damage to the key needs of the country. Moreover, after all the amnesties over the past three decades, the existence of laws in Macedonia is becoming absurd. He should abolish laws, at least we will know officially that crime is on a “pedestal” in this country and that he would be the one who decides whether the country would become a member of the EU or NATO. The fact that the Prime Minister mentioned the arrival and departure from politics is a bit of a consolation, because the citizens elected him to make Macedonia better, and his departure, which will leave another wreck of the legal state, there will be no benefit out of it. Which, at the end of the day, will be the message – let’s accept this amnesty, so when Macedonia becomes a NATO member, we will start building a law-abiding state!
In the numerous reactions yesterday on social networks one summed up all-fighting for forgiveness with the deceived, Zaev will lose the fair ones. Struggling for NATO, it will throw Macedonia on its knees. Neither the name, nor the Prespa agreement, nor NATO, nor the EU, are worth the cost of making such a swap, or any such sacrifice. And, not only that they are unworthy, they will not even lead us to the desired goal. It was quite enough yesterday to watch the session in Parliament and listen to those pardoned, and soon pardoned, politicians talk about national interests and morality, so that we can all understand where we live and buy a one-way ticket to anywhere.