Gruevski forgets consent to ‘any old…van Haute and Katica’

By Тео Блажевски On Jan 25, 2016 0

Did he forget he consented to the current events to solve the crisis? Image: Screenshot

Speaking at the yearly conference of his party’s Women Union in Skopje, VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski said:

The massive turnout of these elections will be a good lesson and it will be quite a while before another politician tries to seize power with a great hoax, by cooperating with foreign intelligence agencies, with criminals, forgers, with any old Qaush, van Haute and Katica, with snake oil salesmen, these types whose main goal in life is to racketeer the businessmen of their town. [Source: Deutsche Welle, 24.01.2016]

Gruevski’s statement is, among other fitting attributes, inconsistent.

ARGUMENT

If the “good lesson” is a figure for the upcoming elections that SDSM will supposedly lose, the following statement (“…it will be quite a while before another politician tries to seize power with a great hoax, by cooperating with foreign intelligence agencies”) is formally false.

Seizing power by fraud has not been documented in any legal procedure concerning any Macedonian politician in the 25 years of independent history. There have been many doubts that elections were stolen, many protests following complaints lodged with authorities regarding voting irregularities, even Parliament walk-outs.

An instance of the opposition leaving the Parliament took place between the first and second round of the parliamentary and presidential elections of 1994, when the opposition coalition led by Ljubcho Georgievski and Petar Goshev, then VMRO-DPMNE and Democratic Party leaders respectively, abandoned the elections.

But not a single round of parliamentary elections has been invalidated or recast due to fraud, with the international community accrediting all without exception.

During the last vote, the early elections of 2014, as well as the local elections of 2013, observing NGOs and media claimed electoral fraud with the voting registry was afoot, as well as cases of people voting without the right to do so, such as citizens of Pustec, Albania, or voters turning up in a specified voting location while being registered in another town.

Later, when the opposition began broadcasting the illegally intercepted telephone conversations in 2015, the public could hear of numerous instances of electoral fraud and doubt the regularity of the process.

Consequently, the Agreement intended to solve the current political crisis regulates the adoption of a law establishing a Special Public Prosecutor’s Office (SPPO), tasked with examining the claims made by the opposition, some of which have already resulted in actions taken up by the regular Prosecutors Office.

The SPPO was formed only after all political parties involved in the process – including Gruevski’s party, but also himself personally – consented to the election of Katica Janeva as the head of the new institution, with Gruevski subsequently expressing his satisfaction.

Lest we forget, the Pržino Agreement includes a series of issues which the main political parties have yet to agree on. The European Commission and Commissioner Hahn appointed Peter van Haute, a Belgian politician with experience in Macedonian matters since the attempts to solve the crisis of December 24, 2012. His appointment was also accepted by all political parties after their leaders, Gruevski included, expressed their agreement.

Thus, to speak of efforts to “seize power” using “any old… van Haute and Katica”, placing their personages in the possible context of “snake oil salesmen,” is not only beyond the realms of respectful political address, but also inconsistent and partly false.

SOURCES:

Цивил (2014) – Избори 2014: Дискфалификувана демократија [Retrieved 24.01.2016]
Радио Слободна Европа (24.01.2016) – Четирите пораки на Груевски и бомбите на СДСМ [Retrieved 24.01.2016]
Јутјуб (07.04.2013) – Гласачи од Пустец – Телма ТВ – [Retrieved 24.01.2016]
Вистиномер (24.01.2016) – Што точно се вели во Договорот од Пржино [Retrieved 24.01.2016]
Вечер (15.09.2015) – Груевски: Задоволен сум од изборот на Специјалниот обвинител [Retrieved 24.01.2016]

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This article was created within the framework of the Project to increase the accountability of the politicians and political parties Truthmeter implemented by Metamorphosis. The article is made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for Democracy(NED) and The Balkan Trust for Democracy (BTD), a project of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, an initiative that supports democracy, good governance, and Euroatlantic integration in Southeastern Europe. The content is the responsibility of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, National Endowment for Democracy, the Balkan Trust for Democracy, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, or its partners.