There is difference between Spasov and Spasov

Aleksandra M. Mitevska

Following the principle “Better late than never”, the government had another surprise for the public, stating that Aleksandar Donev has been removed from his position as the head of the Agency for Tourism. The scandal about his business-class flight to Argentina, where he attended the World Summit for adventuristic travels was what “sentenced” Donev, one of the well-known participants in the “Colorful Revolution”. With a delay of two months, the government, practically, decided not to accept the apology he made through the media, promising to return the money.

“Slow, but not forgotten” – the Government reacted when it changed its Secretary General Dragi Raskovski from the position of a representative in Telecom’s Assembly of Shareholders. “Only” four months earlier, the opposition VMRO-DPMNE rebelled that the high-ranking government official was self-appointed as a government representative in Telecom, allegedly for a fee of 500 euros per session.

The former members of the State Election Commission, however, took less time before deciding to resign over the affair with the high bonuses for the recent election cycles. Although, practically, forced under pressure of fierce public reactions, those resignations, however, took place, with the representatives of ruling party in the SEC making the first move.

Therefore, the reaction to the case of the accident caused by the actor Dragan Spasov-Dac was instant – by him and the Government. Spasov publicly regretted the incident, admitted that he was under the influence of alcohol. He also said that after a car accident, he and his wife tried to help the girl while the police and emergency assistance were waiting. He also said he feels shame, guilt and responsibility. After that, he proved it practically, resigning from the director’s office, not allowing the government cabinet to find the situation to think and calculate a month or two whether to change the head of the Macedonian National Theater, who is also a known activist in the “Colorful Revolution”. In truth, neither the government tried to hide the incident with the actor’s official, announcing that responsibility would be claimed by Spasov if he proves that he has committed a serious offense and that such a person cannot manage an institution and perform an important function.

In the yesterday’s bulletin of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, among all the other information from the black chronicle, she also realized that the person D.S. (54) hit a girl who was then transferred to the City Hospital in Skopje, where she was found to have bodily injuries, after which she was admitted to domestic treatment. And this is where the comparison with another person with initials D.S. (33) comes up, who performed a much higher function than the actor with the same surname as his. A year ago, perhaps, he would have been forced to resign – if almost all of the ruling machine was not put into operation to cover up the incident caused by the youngest minister of VMRO-DPMNE. Dime Spasov, in fact, served as an additional deputy minister of labor and social policy, when he caused the incident with the ‘Tuareg’ of the Employment Agency, after which he left the scene by shifting the responsibility of the official driver, and then accusing him of police-criminal framing. In fact, there are great differences in cases with former director Spasov and former Minister Spasov. One of those differences is the sense of political and moral (ir)responsibility that one has shown against one another. Among them, the two have a big difference in age, but this is certainly not the main reason why one immediately withdrew from his post alone, and the other did not do it despite the everyday demands for his resignation. Perhaps younger Spasov then would leave office if the government in which he had been ministers for a long time did not impose the principle of not taking responsibility for the mistakes and stunning of the reactions to the scandals that shook the public. Therefore, at that time, the resignations were an abstract noun. Probably, it was precisely this (un) behavior of the previous establishment that then took the threshold of expectations that the next ruling line would behave differently and show a collective sense of political and moral responsibility for the mistakes and that it would be accepted individually by its officials as well.
In several previous cases, this Government reacted negatively, but it reacted – appropriately and accountable. In the last case with the actor Spasov, the reaction was express. It is one of the lessons of this accident – that there is no escape from responsibility – especially for holders of public and state functions.