Scandalous decision by the Government: The state found a job for Elenovski for him to stay in Brussels

Nine years after suing SDSM president Radmila Sekerinska, and NSDP party colleagues Goran Mincev and Goran Misovski, because they published the recording on which he said that Nikola Gruevski was ready to change the name of the state in 2008, the former ambassador to Brussels, Lazar Elenovski plays again for the government – this time for SDSM and DUI. Elenovski’s appointment as Special Envoy for NATO Integration in Brussels shocked all actors on the political scene. Dissatisfaction, which borders with anger, is noticeable among his former party members, associates, journalists and analysts who cannot say a single nice word for Elenovski as a person, nor find a logical explanation for the move from ‘Ilindenska’.

Still more unlikely is the information from government sources that it is a “request” by DUI, whose latest staff is Elenovski, to find a job for the man, whose sole argument is that his family lived in Brussels. After the expiration of his tenure as Macedonian ambassador to Belgium a year and a half ago, he remained there and did not return to the country. All that period he was trying to find a job, but failed, while President Gjorge Ivanov refused to extend his term. His wife works there, his children are at school. This is the main argument of DUI (Elenovski’s mother is Albanian), who, through leader Ali Ahmeti, requests from the prime minister and the government to find him a job in order not to return. On Tuesday evening, at the 56th government session, his wish was fulfilled.
“I have no words to express my dissatisfaction with this decision of the Government. It’s a man who, when you give him a little trust, exploits and misuses it in the worst possible way. What can I say about him? He declared himself as president of the Euro-Atlantic Club, he used and rejected Tito Petkovski when he was a member of the NSDP. There are doubts about his fault in the helicopter accident at Petrovec, certainly not that he caused it, but because of the parts for the aircraft, and then he was the Minister of Defense. Do you want me to speak from a professional point of view? He does not deserve any attention, he has no authority in NATO. This is a huge mistake of the Government and DUI, because he does everything he does, that is of personal interest, not from romantic ideals or because of the interests of the Albanians, “ex-ambassador to NATO Nano Ruzin complains.
The disbelief also prevails in NSDP, which is a coalition partner of SDSM. Elenovski was a member of Tito Petkovski’s party when he was part of the VMRO-DPMNE’s government until 2008, and when NSDP decided to leave Nikola Gruevski’s arms, he and several others left and formed the SDU, with which he remained to serve did not betray it at any moment during the 11-year reign.
Yesterday, the government firmly defended its decision. At a regular briefing with journalists, spokesman Mile Bosnjakovski said that it is an experienced diplomat who will contribute to the country’s Euro-integration process. Asked whether Elenovski was appointed at the request of DUI, Bosnjakovski mentioned that he was “elected on the proposal of the Government”.
Dissatisfaction also on social networks. Journalist Borjan Jovanovski writes that Elenovski made his career as a schoolmate of Gruevski, putting in his lap the Euro-Atlantic Movement of Macedonia to become a defense minister. He recalled that precisely during his reign, the money from the defense budget spilled over into the police and thus gave power to Mijalkov. Jovanovski states that Elenovski defended Gruevski until the very last moment when his term of office was terminated in Brussels in 2016.
“Everything that he left behind should today be a symbol of an activist who brutally strives to protect only his personal interest. Elenovski should be an illustration of what our state administration must not do. Instead, we hear that Elenovski needs to affirm us in Brussels as a society in the process of democratic reforms that should return our position to NATO, the same one that we lost because of Elenovski’s trading with the strategic interests of the state in order to satisfy his own ambitions “, stresses Jovanovski. He reminded that there was no work in Macedonia for the man who discovered the wiretapping and threatened his own security, and there was one for a person like Laze Elenovski.

Goran Adamovski