Gruevski says he is most to blame for the defeat, but will he accept the responsibility?

VMRO-DPMNE’s election results and the sane logic say that after these elections Gruevski is actually pushed against the wall and has no choice but to step down from the party’s leadership. Yet, conjecturing he will do exactly that is very ill-advised

Author: Olivera Vojnovska

In his speech delivered on Sunday (15 October 2017), when VMRO-DPMNE experienced the local elections debacle and was defeated even in the municipalities that were considered right-wing’s strongholds such as Prilep, Bitola, Gjorche Petrov, the leader of this party, Nikola Gruevski assessed that “the first round of the local elections took place in undemocratic atmosphere” and confessed that he bears the most of the responsibility for the election results. However, Gruevski didn’t reveal his next moves by the end of that day, and the dilemma whether he will leave the party’s leadership after 14 years is still hanging.

In his first post-election statement, Gruevski said:

All aspects of today’s results will be analyzed, in order to be confirmed what else, besides the massive irregularities, hasn’t been good enough or has been done the wrong way on our part that didn’t lead to better results in these elections. I, as party’s president, bear most of the responsibility regarding the election results, as I have previously said. All of this, the causes, the results and the future directions will be discussed in the period immediately after the elections

Nearly a month ago, Gruevski heralded that the election results will affect his political career, i.e. they will decide whether he will remain the leader of VMRO-DPMNE. On 20 September 2017, in an interview for Alsat M TV station, when asked “is he ready to resign from the party’s leaderhsip if the party loses the elections” Gruevski answered shortly:

Party’s president bears the most of the responsibility.

EMERGING CALLS FOR RESIGNATION

Right after the ballot boxes were sealed on Sunday, when the results started appearing and when SDSM began declaring victory in growing number of municipalities, the VMRO-DPMNE’s reformers requested resignation from party’s leadership. The Republic headquarters for reforms in VMRO-DPMNE called Gruevski to step down and to allow democratic changes of the party.

The age of gruevism in VMRO-DPMNE and the Republic of Macedonia has ended. We formed this initiative four months ago in order to prevent this, the defeat of VMRO-DPMNE. Nikola Gruevski didn’t recognize the historical dimensions of the internal initiative in the party, which would have contributed to party’s better readiness regarding these elections – (Aleksandar Mihajlovski from VMRO-DPMNE reform wing)

On 16 October 2017, a day after the elections, Samoil Malcheski from the Forum of free-minded patriots, made a statement for Plusinfo, and he also requested Gruevski’s resignation:

Nikola Gruevski must resign immediately and assume the responsibility for the disgraceful defeat – Malcheski said. He was among the first ones who publicly requested the shift in the party’s leadership, pointing out that it’s the only way to save the party, and the state too.

Albeit VMRO-DPMNE’s election results and the sane logic say that after these elections Gruevski actually pushed against the wall and has no choice but to step down from the party’s leadership. Yet, conjecturing he will do exactly that is very ill-advised.

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