Budapest therapy for the members of VMRO-DPMNE

The interview with “The King of Exile”, former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski for TV Sitel, which, as we learned from the wiretapped materials, was the main “microphone” in the hands of his regime – is only the last episode of the Macedonian political theater of the absurd.

The fifteen-minute-long conversation, in which he mostly talks in riddles and basically doesn’t say anything different from his written Facebook posts that were published after his escape and caused various reactions – from relativization of his role on the Macedonian political scene, to the opinions that, however, he should not be underestimated, since he still hasn’t put down VMRO’s “party remote”.

There were also strong party statements from SDSM’s headquarters on Bihac Street with messages that “the coward will be back – but in prison”. The head of the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office, Vilma Ruskovska, also announced that next week more details will be revealed from the investigation of his escape two months ago.

After this brief conversation, the honorary president of VMRO-DPMNE immediately became part of the intra-party race for presidential candidate. The presidential candidate of the “Macedonia Blocks” Filip Petrovski at the VMRO-DPMNE convention “fell to his knees” from a distance of 800 kilometers, demanding that he should stand behind his nomination for president and thus correct the injustice that was done to him at the Valandovo Congress.
Former Minister of Interior, one of his closest associates, Gordana Jankuloska, in turn, ignored her former boss. She said that she did not watch the interview, she had family responsibilities that were her priority.

This wave of reactions came after Gruevski emerged as a lonesome man who was clumsily trying to show anger for some personal injustice done to him, as some kind of “Zorro” with “a sword” and a cloak of “a lively politician” who wants to protect the unprotected, in this case his former comrades who publicly condemned his escape (Mickoski, Janakieski, Jankuloska), but, as he said, he didn’t hold grudges because they were under pressure.

As usual, he didn’t forget to mock the government. A wave of force broke into his swift feet: “Didn’t they say they were going to find out how I fled,” Gruevski points out, saying “One day I will return, I didn’t come here to live, but to get out of political persecution.”

It was difficult yesterday to get any kind of comment on Gruevski’s appearance within the structures of VMRO-DPMNE. Even members of the so-called “Reform wing” have avoided giving their opinion which could be Gruevski’s goal to “poke” the public this way, from time to time, through media addresses (in this case ordered) and whom it could harm or benefit.

Two days before the broadcast of Gruevski’s interview, he was mentioned by the Prosecutor Ruskovska and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Some of the analysts, however, that we consulted say that he is causing a certain damage to VMRO-DPMNE, because it is difficult to stand behind a politician (who is still seen as an icon by some of the members), who escaped from facing justice, even though they call it a political persecution, while at the same time it is damaging to the prosecution authorities who could not prevent his escape.

While part of the members consider that the damage to the party has already been done and that there is no room for any more.

“He cannot now make any serious mess inside the party’s ranks of VMRO-DPMNE. Enough damage was done when he led them into opposition and turned them into an isolated party. But with such occasional public TV or Facebook appearances can cause some damage to the current government, because the democratic public in the country has not yet received answers from the competent institutions how can such a “political capitalist” sentenced to two years in prison, and also involved in a series of other serious criminal charges, flee the country so easily. Each of his appearance is irritating the public,” said professor Nikola Dujovski from the Faculty of Security, who, however, says that over time, the strength of his appeal to the public will weaken.

According to him, the interview is some mild therapy for his supporters from VMRO-DPMNE.
“Regardless of all the warnings from both the domestic and the international public, the main opposition party has not matured politically. Gruevski himself says that 90 percent of people are still loyal to him, although he points out that a dozen people that he has personally helped, turned their backs on him. Personally I do not believe that the VMRO-DPMNE presidential candidate will pass through the party filters without the consent of Gruevski. He is still the right address where support can be sought, but not for Filip Petrovski because his chances for presidential candidate are nonexistent. I do not think he speaks the truth when he says he has no contact with the leadership of the party and does not interfere with the party’s decisions. On the contrary, I think that he gives them certain guidelines and appropriate political directives. They failed to leave their own recognizable political mark and get out of his shadow,” Dujovski points out.
Two days before Gruevski’s interview, he was mentioned by Prosecutor Rukovoska and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, practically at the same time. Citing the words of the endangered witness, behind closed doors, Ruskovska for the first time revealed in her closing argument that the former prime minister was the organizer of the incursion into the Parliament on April 27. Gruevski denied it in the interview.

In an interview with H1 regional television, the current prime minister said that “it is important to note that before the escape, the head of VMRO-DPMNE and Gruevski’s successor met both with Orban and President Vucic” and that this information was known and published, but that the public stayed with no explanation what was discussed at those meetings.

His party SDSM yesterday said that Mickoski had confirmed that he was waiting for his boss from Budapest for a new conspiracy against Macedonia, after in an interview with Radio Free Europe, he said that VMRO-DPMNE should first win the elections, form a government, and then step by step to change the processes that arise from the Prespa Agreement. VMRO-DPMNE, meanwhile, said that the interview was given in first person singular and there is nothing to add here.

Gruevski’s escape is still in pre-investigative procedure. Institutions still do not publish anything about the escape of the most famous political asylum seeker, although such a thing has long been announced. Now it is again announced that the prosecutor who leads the pre-investigation next week will come out in public with what has been done so far.

In the meantime, it has been confirmed that the main video recordings from Albania that allegedly show how he left the Macedonian-Albanian border do not exist. Albania, after almost two months of silence, in the end, said they were automatically erased.

Naum Kotevski