VMRO-DPMNE Uses Generalizations and Spin to Besmear Everything SPO Does

VMRO-DPMNE, which is the most affected party by the work of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, by distorting the truth that SPO served Zaev only for racketeering and allegedly spent 12 million euros in public money, besmears all cases opened and led by this institution for 4 years. The party does this by using the “Racket” case, and via this case tries to overthrow everything SPO has done since its founding. The message they are trying to convey to the public is that their party and the persons affected by the charges and investigations are absolutely clean and are only victims of political persecution and racketeering

Author: Teofil Blaževski

The main opposition party issued a statement that, according to our estimation, contains distorted truths, i.e. spin:

Spin: SPO in four years “pumped” 12 million euros that belonged to the citizens and spent them on salaries and fees for racketeering prosecutors and their relatives employed as administrative staff.

SPO was spending the citizens’ money, and was working for Zoran Zaev. Zaev announced a chase, and the SPO immediately launched a mounted investigation.

SPO prosecutors were provided with all working and living conditions. They abused everything and were a machete for racketeering…

… A lot of money given by citizens, but no effect. The SPO was only a machete in the hands of Zoran Zaev for hacking and crime. There will be responsibility for all illegal activity.

[SOURCE:  ВМРО-ДПМНЕ/веб страна – Соопштение – date: 20.09.2019]

Counterspin: The most affected party by the work of the Special Prosecutor’s Office, by distorting the truth that SPO served Zaev only for racketeering and allegedly spent 12 million euros in public money, besmears all cases opened and led by SPO for 4 years. The message they are trying to convey to the public is that their party and the persons affected by the charges and investigations are absolutely clean and are only victims of political persecution and racketeering. But the truth is a little different.

The statement/position of VMRO-DPMNE makes a generalization, manipulates media articles that say what were the salaries of the former Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva and other prosecutors (for example, one day earlier they mentioned Gavril Bubevski and several others), highlighting nepotistic employment in the SPO and concluding that “a lot of money given by citizens, but no effect “.

EFFECTS ARE YET TO COME

The effect so far may not be very noticeable unless one takes into account that in the “Tank” case. Nikola Gruevski, the convicted ex-president and current honorary president of VMRO-DPMNE, is on the run for not serving his sentence, and we have a first-degree acquittal for Dragan Pavlovič-Latas in the “Lawn” case. But let’s not forget the fact that according to the SPO reports, especially the last three, in the cases represented by prosecutors from this prosecution, more than 10 people were convicted, and the Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of five (as of 15 March 2019).

Moreover, apart from these aforementioned cases prosecuted by the SPO, there are 20 others in the courts, including Talir 1 and Talir 2, cases that directly relate to money laundering by former and part of the current party leadership of VMRO-DPMNE and the illegal construction of party headquarters, the so-called White Palace, which is why the party’s property is still frozen.

So, the basic spin, i.e. VMRO-DPMNE’s distortion of the truth consists in the fact that the effect, that is, an assessment of the objectivity of the charges, will become clear when the court procedure is over. The effect will also be seen in terms of investigations – 10 finished and dozens of pre-investigations. With the transfer of SPO’s competences to the State Public Prosecutor’s Office (SPPO), only this prosecution is able to say whether and which prosecutions and investigations will continue to the prosecution level, while the ongoing cases have already resumed work with the appointment of some former SPO prosecutors to continue to represent the charges before the courts.

Overall, the effect of four-year SPO work is neither small, nor it can be negligible. In particular, there cannot exist something like “no effect”, as assessed by VMRO-DPMNE, who are using another spin to support this one – they increase the total amount of the funds spent, which is not their first time.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SPEND 12 MILLION EUROS IF YOU DO NOT POSSESS IT!

VMRO-DPMNE claims that SPO spent 12 million euros for 4 years, which is not true. In another article in April, when VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski claimed that SPO had spent 15 million euros in citizens money, ”Truthmeter” deemed this statement false, arguing that by the end of 2018 SPO had spent two times less for the period 2015-2018, i.e. about 8 million euros.

The costs are now exaggerated again. Namely, for 2019, SPO had state budget approved funds of about 228.6 million denars, or about 3.7 million euros. According to the latest report on the overall and financial operations of SPO, between the beginning of 2019 and 15 March 2019, they had spent around 37 million denars or 604 thousand euros. It is unknown how much they spent between 15 March and 15 September this year, as this report has not yet been published and has not been submitted to the Parliament. But even by assuming that they have spent the entire sum envisaged for 2019, which has never happened in this prosecution’s work, the entire amount is again less than 12 million euros. It is also a fact that in these four years of existence of SPO, no one has ever questioned the manner of spending the funds allocated to this prosecution.

Having in mind the above mentioned arguments, we consider that these claims made by VMRO-DPMNE distort the truth and therefore we deem them as spin.

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