The crimes of President Ivanov

President Gjorge Ivanov is still in office under unclear circumstances, probably only because the competent institutions and prosecutors, court instances and the Assembly do not initiate proceedings to apply the constitutional provisions. This man that has been at the helm of the state for nine years, after quite questionable elections, after all the crimes that he has done, continues to ruin the state, and harasses the public with decisions every day, and threats to disturb the interests and reputation of Macedonia. If he is not placed on the defendant’s bench soon, those who tolerate him will be held accountable, and thus become his accomplices.

The Macedonian constitution has provisions on what to do, what solution to acquire for the incalculable and misconduct of the president of the state, and for his flagrant disregard of justice and the rule of law. In a lawful country, party-made abolitions and canceled abolitions and pardons for suspected high-ranking officials and politicians, gathered in a criminal mission against their own citizens, cannot go unpunished. The acts of violation of human rights and freedoms, invocation and incitement to execute a coup by violating the constitution, and denying the majority to constitute the Assembly and the government after a credible election, are never obsolete, and as a direct consequence there is bloodshed and attempts to murder lawmakers in the Assembly. Can President Ivanov’s decisions go unpunished, which directly cause disruption of the social order, and disrupt the future of Macedonia and its citizens?

The president of the state, if the rule of law actually works, will face serious charges of violating the Constitution by not signing laws passed in parliament in a democratic procedure by voting “in favor” for the second time. Finally, there are members in the constitutive law, who anticipate appropriate procedures when the president is not in his right mind and makes harmful decisions, although he publicly admits in fron of TV cameras that he is not informed what is happening in the country. Ignorance of the laws due to the ignorance of the president does not relieve the offender of responsibility, nor his accomplices.
Gjorge Ivanov with his hasty threats with some kind of veto, like a coward’s egg deposited in his cabinet, with consequences like Macedonia not joining NATO and the EU, is the last alarm that dramatically warns that we are talking about a medical case in which the patient is under severe stres,s and is not aware of his great responsibility, which means that Macedonia remains out of the two largest political, economic and military alliances in the world. The president, through his cabinet, although he claims he is not informed about the negotiations with Greece, with his threats of veto, even before he receives all the information firsthand, indecent for a president of a state, publicly decided to fail all of Macedonia’s decades-long efforts for Euro-Atlantic integration. If he at least waited a while, maybe that service would be done by our neighbors who imposed the problem.
In the last nine years, President Ivanov has greatly contributed to the “stolen” time of the Macedonian citizens’ lives, which is in fact our biggest defeat. So far, 27 years have passed in vain in constant justifications, with good prospects Ivanov and his followers to prolong the agony for another 27 years, or rather, until the final disappearance of Macedonia.

Ivanov’s verbal commitments for Macedonia’s EU and NATO membership, expressed by the position of president of a nuclear super-power, were caricatured and were followed by ridicule in the political cabinets, even by our friends and supporters. This policy of ignoring the relations with the great powers and interests was most often qualified as: “Ignorant, plus incapable.” The end result would be the desperate gesture by President Ivanov to fulfill his colleague’s desire, Greece’s President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, for the negotiations to fail, and then blame the citizens of Skopje.

I do not know what the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Dimitrov told the President of the state, and whether he told him something more than what he has said to the public. But, despite that, President Ivanov is obliged to publicly reply to the crucial question – what is the sustainability of Macedonia as a state, if it does not join NATO and the EU, and where does he see a perspective, if the negotiations fail because of his threats to erga gomnes.

And more importantly, President Ivanov should show to the Macedonian public what his responsibility is, if he hinders the most important strategic goals and priorities of the state. Is this man who was pulled out of a sleeve as a Joker card to become president of the state, a sound assessment or analysis of the Security Council which he handles, or warnings from the intelligence services about what will happen to Macedonia, if all the neighbors get to their goal, and we remain isolated. It does not take much analysis to conclude that after 200,000 Bulgarian passports, that is, Bulgarian citizenships, there will be at least as much Albanian and Serbian citizenships. No one can prevent this unless the most important strategic interests of the state are implemented. If the president does not know this, he should be told by the competent institutions under his authority and responsibility. If it does not help, he needs to find out in the investigation against him, which should first be raised in parliament, and then in the competent court.

It is strange that President Ivanov, one year before the end of his term, and after nine years of party activism and propaganda, without a word, even without the slightest attempt to be the president of all citizens, did not decide on an alibi resignation this time. Such a thing is expected. It would be like him to act like a hero, even when he cowardly runs away from facing the problem, and make the most significant decision for the future of the state and citizens.

Erol Rizaov