Was VMRO-DPMNE leadership shocked by the testimonies – White palace or parapolice camp?

Spiro Ristovski, who was the Minister of Education in the government of Nikola Gruevski, last week, in a statement to Deutsche Welle, encouraged VMRO-DPMNE’s MPs to get involved in parliamentary activities, pointing out that it was not surprising that a second group of opposition parliamentarians was ready to join the processes of reconciliation and the protection of national identity. Therefore, yesterday Ristovski found himself in the camp of former senior officials of VMRO-DPMNE, which, according to Aleksandar Vasilevski-Ninja’s testimony, on April 27, 2017, coordinated the incursion into Parliament from the “White Palace” of VMRO-DPMNE. In his testimony, the name of Biljana Briskovska, the former deputy minister of justice, was singled out, which, together with the former deputy prime minister, Vladimir Pesevski, wrote the letter for national reconciliation. On the other hand, according to the information, Briskovska after the election of the new leadership of VMRO-DPMNE, is a representative of the opposition in the working group with SDSM that harmonizes the laws in the area of the judiciary, which requires a two-thirds majority.

-Concerning the allegations transmitted to the media by the testimony of the accused Aleksandar Vasilevski, I can only state that I am stunned by the untruth of the statement that concerns me and I completely reject it as incorrect, said Briskovska yesterday.
Saso Mijalkov, whom VMRO-DPMNE excluded from the party for allegedly assisting the securing of two-thirds majority for constitutional changes, also found himself in the series of names that were listed by the accused Ninja yesterday. He also mentioned Trajko Veljanoski, longtime Parliament Speaker, Boris Josifovski, current head of the cabinet of President Gjorge Ivanov, Mile Janakieski and Kiril Bozinovski, for whom the current leadership of VMRO-DPMNE remands releasing from custody for the SPO’s “Titanic” case…

These are mainly people who were part of the closest party leadership in the time of VMRO-DPMNE’s rule, and who did not enter the party bodies after the arrival of Hristijan Mickoski at the helm of the opposition, although some of them until recently were involved in party activities and policy making. VMRO-DPMNE did not comment until yesterday afternoon regarding the latest testimony about the events on April 27, through which the party center is shown as the headquarters of parapolice structures.

The shocking testimony of how VMRO-DPMNE operated in the period when it was the main ruling party in the country comes when a new party leadership is rounding up one year since the change of helm. Hristijan Mickoski was the only candidate for Nikola Gruevski’s successor at the extraordinary congress in Valandovo, which was held in an atmosphere that sparked an intra-party division. The change of the helm, in fact, came directly after the arrests for the so-called “bloody Thursday”, when Gruevski announced his resignation after meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev at the presidential residence of Gjorge Ivanov.

Ten days ago, VMRO-DPMNE held the first of the series of announced protests before the government, devoting it to the anniversary of the arrests for events on April 27, which, according to Mickoski, is “the darkest and most monstrously constructed process in which lawmakers, actors, directors and opera singers were arrested and detained for fictional terrorism”.

-VMRO-DPMNE will suffer consequences until the current party leadership distances itself from the bad moves and the harmful policies of the previous leadership. The party will not be able to get out of the shadows of the past and display it as a democratic and constructive political factor, until it engages in clearing those harmful policies and sanctioning them, said political analyst Albert Musliu.

He was also mentioned in Vasilevski’s testimony yesterday, but as one of the four official who were followed by the Fifth Board and who had cameras planted in his home. In this context, the incumbent Prime Minister Zaev and Minister of Internal Affairs Oliver Spasovski, as well as Zoran Verusevski, were also mentioned. However, Musliu’s name was the biggest surprise. He said he himself was surprised by what he had heard. He added that he did not have any clue that there were cameras planted in his house and that he could not even guess where they were, since he constantly moves between Skopje-Gostivar: However, he announced that he will thoroughly investigate the case and then plans to file a lawsuit.

According to unofficial information, the last testimonies for the April 27 events were also reflected in the so-called process of reconciliation, which also delayed the presentation of the draft amnesty law. Although independent MP Emilija Aleksandrova announced on Monday that she expected the amnesty proposal to be ready until today, the latest information from parliament yesterday was that the draft version of this law should be ready by the end of next week. The independent parliamentary group, which conditioned further support to the constitutional changes by accelerating reconciliation, did not want to comment yesterday on how Vasilevski’s testimony will affect the process. Earlier, some of the independent MPs reacted to Mijalkov’s detention, pointing out that the detentions that were determined after Gruevski’s escape did not support reconciliation.

SDSM lawmaker Hari Lockenec, who is in the reconciliation body, said he expected the process to be completed, because he was set on principle from the very beginning. The reconciliation process, according to Lokvenec, is based on the fact that at no cost will decisions be allowed that would cause distortion of the justice system and that it will have responsibility for the organizers and direct participants in the violence in parliament.

– I responsibly say that this process applies only to the April 27 case. I would point out the positive spirit by which independent MPs entered the process, which is not only important for the parliament, but also for the citizens, says Lokvenec.

According to him, VMRO-DPMNE takes a defeating position by excluding itself from reconciliation. Against the body of reconciliation that is working on the so-called selective amnesty, VMRO-DPMNE proposed a recent law on full amnesty for the October 2nd events. The opposition party decided not to participate in the Coordinative Body for Reconciliation, but recently also debated the “anti-constitutional” stance, as well as a quiet boycott of the referendum in September.

Aleksandra M. Mitevska