Too early to give up on Zaev

Naser Selmani

I met Prime Minister Zoran Zaev quite accidentally at a briefing in the Parliamentary Group of SDSM in Parliament before the local elections in 2004. At that time, Zaev was a young MP from Strumica, little known to the public, except that he was known among his colleagues as a graduated economist and that his family had several successful companies.

In those elections, several MPs, at their will or at the request of SDSM, were to run for mayors. The dilemma raised in the public was whether, at the moment when the parties submit the candidate lists to the State Election Commission, the MPs should resign from the office of the MP due to conflict of interests.

And of course the position of SDSM and most of its deputy mayoral candidates was that they did not have to resign. Only one MP from SDSM jumped out of this position. It was Zoran Zaev, who then should have been a candidate for mayor of Strumica. Although he was there accidentally, he said something that left me very impressed as a journalist, but on the other hand he was irritated by the then coordinator of the SDSM caucus. But what did Zaev say? He said he wanted to resign from the parliamentary position in the Parliament, but the leadership disagreed. And he did not finish here, he proceeded. If I lose in Strumica, I will no longer be a lawmaker. If the Strumica people do not believe me, then whom do I represent in the Assembly! Very true, courageous and atypical for a politician from SDSM from that time.

Why atypical? Because by then we were taught SDSM’s cadres to be mostly followers of the previous system, who rarely have their own attitude, much less to articulate it publicly without taking into account what the party thinks. Most of the previous staff of former Communists built their careers in the public or state administration. Or they were children of prominent party and state officials from the previous socialist regime. Only Zaev stood out of that SDSM staff grayness and was treated as a black sheep, who supposedly spoiled their imagined elitist impression in the public.
The second moment, which is important to understand Zaev the politician, is his arrest in 2008 and the attempt for his political execution by the then-President of the country, Branko Crvenkovski.

Why is this event important to me? Because Zaev then showed character and refused to settle with the regime, even at the price of ending up in prison. The chiefs coordinated quickly when they saw that they could not break it with the threat of imprisonment, so they amnestied him in order to seal his political career from the very beginning. Knowing that if Zaev was convicted and ended up in prison, regardless of charges filed with him, in the eyes of the Macedonian public, as a successful mayor of Strumica, he would be the victim of the regime and a hero for the citizens. A matter of time would be his triumphant return to politics, and with that, Gruevski and Crvenkovski will leave for history.

Remember the words of the then-President Branko Crvenkovski, the decision to amnesty Zaev was one of the most difficult ones. By doing this, Crvenkovski basically found him guilty of the deeds he was charged with. It was later shown that the way Zaev was building the Shopping Mall was a practice of all the officials of DPMNE.
Zaev’s political profile as a politician was best manifested during the long process of crushing the regime of Gruevski. He showed determination, courage and tact. I have no dilemma that without Zaev, it was almost impossible to break Gruevski. His role is indispensable in the liberation of Macedonia from an authoritarian regime, which was ready to break through, only to save the regime’s exponents and to preserve the stolen money from the state during their eleven years of governance.

The opening of SDSM to Albanian voters is the fourth moment, which is important for understanding the political profile of Zoran Zaev. If this was not the openness of the opposition to these voters, Gruevski’s regime would sweep away victoriously in the 2016 elections, and the future of Macedonia would have been very uncertain.

All these moments I mentioned in order to say that, as a citizen, I still trust Zoran Zaev. I can be dissatisfied with the performance of his government for these nine months of rule, but of course I can understand it. Obviously, our expectations were too great or unrealistic in the actual political moment. I understand Zaev because I’m not entirely sure that anyone else in his place, in such circumstances, would deliver more.
And of course I will not give up so easily on Zaev, because the Macedonian public has invested a lot of energy for his lifting as a politician. Fierce and immature is a political figure, on which we have sworn for three years, to give up only after 9 months of his reign. I know the crunch and criticize it to do more, but I will not quit because I do not want to miss this unique opportunity to consolidate my country as a state. On the other hand, I do not see any other serious alternative, as VMRO-DPMNE did not get out of the capture of the former leader, who spent more time in court than at home.

I will not raise a hysteria against Zaev because I do not want to be part of the game of the state establishment, which for more than 15 years has been trying to dispose of a political figure different from the politicians so far. I do not give up because I still believe that with civil support and help of our friends in the world, we can make a discontinuity with the political establishment in Macedonia, which is deeply undemocratic in itself. He has so far shown that he only takes care of the company, rather than the interests of the ordinary Macedonian citizen. I am convinced that ethnic and religious hatred and intolerance in Macedonia is created from this establishment, which abuses the feelings of citizens, rules according to the principle of split and rule. Divided, scarred and weak Macedonia will never become part of a free, democratic and united Europe. In essence, this is the ultimate goal of the establishment that is now shifting to Zaev, so that Macedonia does not catch the final step in integration and stay in the margins of the processes like a black hole in the Balkans, in the arms of the police regimes in Serbia. The establishment is not excited because Zaev fails to fulfill the promises, on the contrary, it is afraid that in due time it can be realistically feasible.
And what is this phantom establishment, of which I constantly speak, and what ordinary citizens cannot see with their bare eyes. Part of that political and state establishment is in the Zaev government and in the opposition itself. Tell me how all the criticisms against the new government can be directed only against Zaev and his close associates, and in no case criticize Rada Sekerinska, which has an important function in the party and the government. Sekerinska is the SDSM vice president with the highest level of seniority of all party officials, and has a key role in the government’s personnel policy. When have you heard a bad word in public against Sekerinska because of the bars in the government’s personnel policy? Is not she the president of the SDSM staff committee? On the contrary, it goes to Zaev’s negative account.

And now someone will tell me it was by chance. Of course it was not by chance. The old SDSM that identifies with Crvenkovski is well located in the party. They not only did not help Zaev in overthrowing Gruevski, but before the elections they spread defeatism that Zaev cannot beat Gruevski. And of course, these people are very interested in Zaev’s failure so they can all chant: Come back Branko! Outrageous!

But these structures in SDSM are not the only ones working Zaev to hastily to pave the way for the consolidation of their power, making underground agreements with the regime of Gruevski, which still controls VMRO-DPMNE and is built into important instigations of system. And after that, everything will be the same, only Zaev will be gone!
A strong pillar of the criminalized state establishment is, of course, a DUI, which practically secures the majority of Zaev’s government. This political structure, due to the mistakes of the non-agrarian politicians in the Albanian opposition bloc, allowed Gruevski through Ali Ahmeti to ensure the continuity of the old regime in some of the institutions of the system. DUI officials, for whom there are serious indications of crime, are the only survivors to maintain the status quo of the process, or when they feel that Zaev is weak enough to get involved directly in his political elimination. DUI, in the eleven years of governing with VMRO, never put the rights of the Albanians on the forefront, but the tenders, yet now in Zaev’s government they suddenly caught a patriotic enthusiasm after they got well from the regime of Gruevski.

And this is certainly not a coincidence. They will not be responsible for crime for which there are serious indications only if SDSM’s control is taken by people from the old structure, who in the current political practice have proven that they love only corrupt Albanians. That requirement fulfills most of the DUI’s staff without a problem, and in return for the establishment they will have to deliver a continuation of the acting like fools in political life as alleged representatives of the Albanians, in order to serve as an alibi before the world that the Albanians are represented in the system.
The heart of the old establishment is still in VMRO-DPMNE, because that corrupt system works best with those that can be blackmailed the most. And, Gruevski and the company are now most susceptible to blackmail. Gruevski will be loyal to the establishment because he knows that only the old structures of SDSM will save him, with which they were in power perfectly. Do not forget that Gruevski came to power with the support of Crvenkovski and Petkovski.
That’s why I think it’s too early to give up on Zaev. His minor weaknesses and mistakes must not allow us to blur the big picture we believed in, Macedonia, as a free, democratic and European country. Not for Zaev, but for us.

Additionally, Zaev’s failure is not desirable only by internal chief structures, but also by regional and larger factors. Here are the Greek and Serbian ultranationalists, supported by the Putin regime, who openly shows animosity towards Zaev.
If Zaev fails to resolve the dispute with Greece and gets Macedonia into NATO, and starts membership negotiations with the EU, Vucic will improve his negotiating position with Western factors regarding the Kosovo issue. Vucic will then receive a strong argument that the West’s concept of multiethnic states in the Balkans is failing and that the only way to stabilize the region is to shift boundaries.

This scenario directly threatens Macedonia. In that case, the Serbian state will achieve a century-old goal, the living space of Kosovo Albanians to be Macedonia, as Milosevic’s spiritual father, Dobrica Ćosić predicted. Belgrade will encourage Kosovars to compensate the lost territories in the north of Kosovo with the territories of North-West Macedonia where Albanians live.

It will be an introduction to the Macedonian-Albanian war, in which other neighboring countries may be involved. In the end, the outcome will be known in advance, the stronger will grab the territories for which Albanians and Macedonians fought over. And not only that, Serbia and Greece will have a common border and control over the entire Balkans. That’s what Putin wants. I do not want to participate in the realization of such a scenario. For Macedonia to look like Putin’s Russia!
That’s why I think it’s too early to give up on Zaev. His minor weaknesses and mistakes must not allow us to blur the big picture we believed in, Macedonia, as a free, democratic and European country. Not for Zaev, but for us.