Latest News & Developments

[Bill77]

The Macedonian court rejects corruption charges against Zoran Zaev (who took office and held in office by the influence of a few puppeteers in foreign diplomats, for the purpose of signing a deal with Greece), despite clear video evidence in which he asks for a bribe from a businessman. Yet the same courts' jailed Macedonian most famous opera singer Igor Dulovski, for terrorism based on video evidence him smiling during the storming of parliament last year.

Fucken travesty......

https://youtu.be/s1GYSX1jhHk

If you think the above is a travesty.....

Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva ignoring massive corruption around Zaev is bewildering. But then it made sense upon reading, last year Janeva's sister got a public grant to start a hair-dressing business, then a career advancement, as a couple of weeks ago, Janeva's sister was named by the government as a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

They aren't even trying to hide their corruption.

[Tomche Makedonche]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonian-pm-acquitted-in-bribery-case-05-21-2018

Macedonia Court Acquits Zaev of Bribery Charge

Skopje’s Criminal Court on Monday acquitted Prime Minister Zoran Zaev of soliciting bribes from a businessman in his home town of Strumica – a case in which Zaev claimed he was politically framed by the previous government.

A Macedonian court has ruled that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev was not guilty of having solicited a bribe of 200,000 euros to help a local businessman buy land in his home town of Strumica.

“I am happy about the acquittal and that I finally proved my innocence and received justice,” Zaev said in front of the court after the ruling was issued.

The charges were raised in 2015 amid a deep political crisis in Macedonia, when Zaev was an opposition leader and mayor of Strumica.

He was charged shortly after he started releasing batches of illegally wiretapped conversations that pointed to widespread corruption in the previous government of Nikola Gruevski.

The compromising tapes sparked a political crisis and eventually led to the fall of Gruevski's government last year.

Initially, Zaev was accused of taking a 200,000 euros bribe in order to help privatise the public land that the businessman wanted to purchase.

However, the prosecution later changed its charges from taking to merely soliciting bribes – a milder offence.

Zaev insisted that Gruevski’s government had framed him, to discredit both him and his allegations of widespread corruption.

The case was widely exploited in public, including the use of police video surveillance footage, that Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party insisted offered proof of Zaev's wrongdoing.

The footage depicted Zaev’s conversation with the businessman over certain financial transactions.

But Zaev insisted that the leaked video was cut several times to make it look as if he was soliciting bribery, while he insisted he was only asking for donations to build a church in his home town.

The court this year played the entire uncut video at one of its sessions. However, the public was excluded from this session.

Zaev on Monday said that he would demand that the court permit the publication of the entire video, and said that he would publish it himself if he receives it from the authorities

[Tomche Makedonche]

Zaev working towards that 2 thirds majority

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...ity-05-22-2018

Macedonia PM Recruits Albanian Parties to Boost Majority

Macedonia's prime minister is to submit his proposed government reshuffle to parliament today in a bid to increase his slim majority by adding two small ethnic Albanian parties to his ruling coalition

The reshuffle proposed by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Tuesday is the first since the election of his government last year, and will see two small ethnic Albanian parties join the ruling coalition, boosting its support in the assembly.

The Democratic Party of Albanians, DPA, which controls two MPs in parliament, will get one ministerial post and one deputy minister.

The DPA’s Bardhyl Dauti will be appointed as a minister without portfolio in charge of foreign investments while Musadik Beqiri will be appointed deputy Minister for Transport.

Another small party, BESA - actually the larger of two BESA factions in parliament, which controls three of BESA’s five MPs - will take over the helm of the Culture Ministry.

BESA’s Asaf Ademi will be the new Culture Minister, replacing Robert Alagjozoski who comes from the ranks of Zaev’s main ruling Social Democrats.

BESA is also to get deputy ministerial posts in the Foreign Ministry and in the Labour Ministry.

The proposed reshuffle also envisages change in the Education Ministry where current minister from the ranks of the Social Democrats, Renata Deskoska would be shifted to lead the Justice Ministry.

The new proposed Education Minister will be her current deputy, Arbr Ademi from the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration.

Earlier this week, Zaev told media that he hopes that the government reshuffle will pass in parliament by the end of this month.

The reshuffle, which will bring five more MPs to back the government, will ease pressure on Zaev’s wafer-thin majority in parliament, where since his election in April 2017 he has relied on the support of just 61 of 120 MPs and on occasional support from several other MPs who were formerly aligned with the opposition.

The reshuffle comes as Zaev braces for a backlash by opponents to a possible deal with Greece over Macedonia’s name, which Athens wants changed before it drops its objection to Skopje’s NATO and European Union membership.

BIRN sources within the ruling majority recently said that after the government reshuffle, the administration is also planning changes in about 30 per cent of the directorial posts in public institutions and companies, which will be based on managers’ past performance.

[Tomche Makedonche]

An indication of things to come?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.93dbe4807ec6

Former Macedonian official jailed over police car purchase

SKOPJE, Macedonia — A Macedonian court has convicted a former senior interior ministry official of abuse of office and sentenced him to nine years in prison over a police patrol car procurement deal.

The Skopje criminal court ruled on Tuesday that Gjoko Popovski failed to select the cheapest offer in the purchase of 300 vehicles in 2008, overcharging the state coffers by more than 450,000 euros ($530,000).

Popovski was the ministry’s chief for procurements under Macedonia’s previous conservative administration. He denied any wrongdoing.

The court also ordered Popovski to compensate the state for lost funds, and froze his assets.

Popovski’s defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict.

[Risto the Great]

An indication of things to come?

Sounds like a highly advanced economic decision to me.

[Tomche Makedonche]

If a video of the debate is available, please feel free to post it below

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...els-05-24-2018

Leaders' First TV Duel in Years Grips Macedonia

Macedonian viewers on Wednesday tuned into the first live televised debate between a Prime Minister and an opposition leader in 16 years to hear them thrash out the big issues of the day.

A three-hour televised duel between Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and opposition leader Hristijan Mickovski, the first such event in 16 years, attracted intense attention from viewers in the country and drew heat on social networks.

Major national topics, such as the dispute over Macedonia's name with neighbouring Greece, NATO and EU perspectives, the economy, judicial independence and administration reforms dominated the face-off.

The Prime Minister and leader of the main ruling Social Democratic Union, SDSM, insisted on the need for political leadership in finding a solution to the long-standing name dispute with Greece in order to unlock the country’s blocked NATO and EU accession bids.

Zaev said that his government was only a short way away from finding a “creative solution” on the name issue.

He added that restarting economic growth after years of political crisis, thorough reforms of the judiciary and administration, as well as improving the government's transparency and freedom of speech and the media were also in his focus.

He commended the former ruling right-wing opposition VMRO DPMNE party for ending its boycott of parliament earlier this year, which he said had calmed the political situation and would help Macedonia get a clear recommendation from the European Commission to start EU accession talks.

Mickovski, who took over the VMRO DPMNE party from Nikola Gruevski – who this week received a jail sentence – attacked Zaev’s government, however, which he likened to a “Tsunami”, insisting that it had failed to deliver on all of its promises.

He said the judiciary was run according to the government’s dictates, claimed civil servants were being harassed and laid off based on their political affiliation and maintained that the economy was in decline.

However, he said the opposition would not embark on yet another parliament boycott as it wished to remain constructive.

Regarding the "name" dispute, Mickovski accused Zaev of undermining the country’s positions in the UN-sponsored talks with Greece and of trading with national interests.

The last televised duel between a Prime Minister and an opposition leader took place in 2002 between the then opposition Social Democrat leader Branko Crvenkovski and the then Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE leader Ljubco Georgievski.

In the September 15 parliamentary elections held later that year, Crvenkovski won convincingly.

A VMRO DPMNE policy of avoiding direct debates with political opponents began when Gruevski became party leader in 2003. Gruevski continued this policy after he took power in 2006 and did not take part in a single TV duel during his 11 years in office.

Rebuffing opposition calls for TV debates over the years, Gruevski's party often responded that there was no need for them because VMRO DPMNE presented its policies to the people every day.

Other VMRO DPMNE top officials followed the same line, which several reports by Brussels and Washington noted as a serious deficiency in Macedonia's democratic culture.

Mickovski succeeded Gruevski as leader of VMRO DPMNE in autumn 2017, after the party lost power earlier that year, following a prolonged political crisis, and after many of its top officials, including Gruevski, faced criminal charges over their time in office brought by the Special Prosecution, the body tasked with investigating high-level crime

[Rogi]

The TV duel is available on YouTube.

Here is part 1, you can follow it to part 2, 3, etc to conclusion.

https://youtu.be/Z5Ji9hYDios

[Niko777]

For the first time, there are over 1000 Macedonians from Albania on the waiting list for a Bulgarian passport

[tchaiku]

Those offspring of former Turkish nationals will be applauded for their disgusting behaviour in Greece.

Well he mocked the Pontian genocide. I don't like violence but let's not take things out of context

[Risto the Great]

Well he mocked the Pontian genocide. I don't like violence but let's not take things out of context

Pontians give zero fucks about the Macedonian genocide.

I recall being in Greece 10 years ago and seeing all this drivel about the Pontians on TV. My relatives were all so sad about the fate of these people. Yet they had already forgotten how their own people were hiding from the Greek pigs who were hunting them down. Amazing country.

[maco2envy]

Pontians give zero fucks about the Macedonian genocide.

Not only that, but they have the audacity to insult Macedonians as "intruders".

[Niko777]

More and more Macedonians are trying to leave Macedonia. Today it was revealed in the media that from May 2017 to May 2018 10,000 Macedonians applied for a Bulgarian passport.

For the first time, there are over 1000 Macedonians from Albania on the waiting list for a Bulgarian passport

[Tomche Makedonche]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonian-economy-shows-recovery-signs-after-crisis-06-05-2018

Macedonian Economy Shows Recovery Signs After Crisis

Macedonia’s economy has shown its first signs of recovery after the prolonged political crisis that ended last year, according to figures from the Central Bank and State Statistical Office

With a sharp rise in foreign investments and significant increase in exports in the first quarter of 2018, the Macedonian economy has shown its first signs of recovery after the prolonged political crisis, which ended in mid-2017, nearly brought progress to a halt.

The total value of foreign direct investment in the first four months of this year amounted to 233.3 million euros, more than double to the 111.4 million euro figure from the same period last year, according to the latest data from the Central Bank published this month.

This is also more than the 229.1 million euros of foreign moey that the country managed to attract during the whole of 2017, a year marred by political turbulence which culminated in the bloody storming of the parliament building on April 27.

Data published by the State Statistical Office on Monday also showed a 14.3 per cent rise in country’s exports in the first quarter of this year. During this period Macedonia exported goods worth 1.77 billion euros, some 220 million euros more than the same period last year.

Imports also marked an increase of 11.8 per cent compared to the first quarter or 2017, amounting to a total of 2.4 billion euros. This means that exports in the period January-April 2018 represented 73.7 per cent of the value of imports.

The initial positive trends made the Macedonian government optimistic that it will achieve its goal of 3.2 per cent GDP growth by the end of this year and 5 per cent by the end of 2020.

“Transparent policies reflected in the Law on Financial Support for Investments [adopted in the autumn], changes to the Energy Law, and other measures… to support the economy, are slowly being recognised by domestic and foreign investors and are yielding results,” Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the economy Koco Angjusev told a parliamentary question-and-answer session on Monday.

The country ended last year with growth of zero per cent.

The country was prevented from going into recession by a slight positive upturn in the fourth quarter, attributed to the political stabilisation in the second half of the year when a new government was finally elected.

Historically speaking, Macedonia marked its biggest GDP growth from 2004 to 2008, with the peak year being 2007 with growth of 6.5 per cent.

The country ended 2009, the year of the world economic crisis, with a minus 0.4 per cent growth, the second worst figure after 2012, when it marked minus 0.5 per cent.

The new government hopes that the possible success of the ongoing efforts to end the long-running ‘name’ dispute with neighbouring Greece, which will in turn unlock the country’s EU and NATO accession bids, will further entice investors and boost overall growth

[Tomche Makedonche]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-s-ousted-pm-faces-four-more-trials-06-06-2018

Macedonia’s Ousted PM Awaits Four Trial Verdicts

Macedonia’s former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is appealing against his recent two-year jail sentence but is also awaiting court rulings in four more ongoing cases against him.

The recent two-year sentence handed down to Nikola Gruevski Macedonia’s former conservative Prime Minister and ex-leader of the right-wing VMRO DPMNE party - for involvement in the illicit secret purchase of a luxury Mercedes - is not the end of his judicial troubles.

Gruevski currently faces criminal charges in four more cases, three of which have already gone to trial.

Apart from the Mercedes case, codenamed ‘Tank’, the Special Prosecution, SJO - in charge of investigating allegations of high-level crime - also indicted Gruevski in the cases codenamed ‘Titanic”, ‘TNT”, ‘Traektorija’ (‘Trajectory’) and ‘Shamari’ (‘Slapping’).

In all of these cases, Gruevski’s defence insists he is innocent. Gruevski has repeated on many occasions that he sees the trials as politically motivated by the current Social Democrats-led government.

In the first case, codenamed ‘Titanic’, seen by judicial experts as the most complex, the SJO indicted Gruevski and other top-ranking VMRO DPMNE officials for allegedly masterminding electoral fraud in 2013.

In this case, Gruevski is charged on three counts: criminal association, for which he is faces a jail sentence from one to five years; misuse of assets during an election campaign, for which the lowest sentence is five years, and violation of the freedom of voters, for which the minimum jail sentence is three years.

In the second case, codenamed ‘TNT’, the SJO has indicted Gruevski for misuse of office, for which the maximum sentence is three years in jail.

In this case, he is suspected of ordering the demolition of a building that was being constructed by his former political ally, Fijat Canovski, as an act of political retaliation after Canovski’s small party, the Party for European Future, PEI, quit the former ruling coalition led by Gruevski.

In the third case, codenamed ‘Traektorija’, Gruevski is indicted for exerting unlawful influence, which could bring a jail sentence of one to three years.

In this case, the SJO has indicted Gruevski and several of his associates who are believed to have broken the Public Procurement Law by awarding a 570-million-euro contract to construct two highway stretches to a preferred Chinese construction company.

In the fourth case, dubbed ‘Shamari’, Gruevski is already on trial, accused of ordering an attack on an opposition mayor and his municipality HQ in 2013. He is indicted for inciting a criminal act against public order, for which the sentence runs from six months to five years in jail.

Gruevski also remains the main suspect in at least one other large and complex investigation that the SJO launched in May last year under the codename ‘Talir’ (‘Silver Coin’).

In this case, Gruevski and ten other VMRO DPMNE members are suspected of illegally financing the former ruling party through money-laundering.

All of these cases stem from the content of illegal wiretaps that the former opposition Social Democrats released in batches during 2015.

The airing of these secretly-recorded tapes of officials’ conversations, along with the then opposition’s claims that they originated from within the secret police – and that Gruevski had orchestrated the illegal surveillance of some 20,000 people – created a deep political crisis.

After 11 years in government, Gruevski’s VMRO DPMNE party was ousted from power in May last year.

[Tomche Makedonche]

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/calls-grow-for-macedonian-electoral-reform-to-aid-diversity-06-10-2018

Calls Grow for Macedonian Electoral Reform to Aid Diversity

Scrapping Macedonia’s six electoral units would encourage greater political diversity in parliament, supporters say.

A host of political parties in Macedonia are calling on Prime Minister Zoran Zaev to make good on a promise to scrap the country’s six electoral units, making it easier for smaller parties to pick up seats in parliament.

The Democratic Renewal of Macedonia, DOM, a junior partner in Zaev’s Social Democrat-led ruling coalition, added its voice last week as the main parliamentary parties prepared to discuss possible changes to the Electoral Law.

“We call on ‘bigger’ political parties that are negotiating the electoral model to stay true to their declared commitment to the democratisation of Macedonia,” DOM, which has two MPs in the 120-seat parliament, said in a press release.

Similar calls have already been made by the New Social Democrats, NSDP, the ethnic Albanian BESA movement and a number of civic associations.

They say that making the whole country a single electoral unit would give smaller parties a greater chance of winning seats; under the current six-unit proportional system, introduced in 2002, each unit elects 20 legislators from party lists of 20 candidates.

This system splits the total vote count and often cost smaller parties seats.

Reforming the system, the smaller parties say, would drastically reduce their dependence on big political blocs to help them win seats, freeing them to pursue more authentic political platforms.

Campaigning for elections in 2016, Zaev’s Social Democrats promised to scrap the electoral units, saying that though it may cost the big parties in terms of their share of seats it was necessary to improve democracy.

Resistance

But two other big parties are less enthusiastic.

VMRO-DPMNE, the main opposition party, said the idea had yet to be discussed in the parliamentary working group on electoral changes, but that it had no issues with the current model.

“VMRO DPMNE had no objections thus far to the current electoral model,” the party said in a statement to the Nezavisen Vesnik daily. “Whatever the model may be, the most important thing for us is to provide conditions for fair and democratic elections.”

The Democratic Union for Integration, the largest ethnic Albanian party in Macedonia and Zaev’s chief allies in government, has advocated a compromise solution that would cut the number of units from six to three.

“If that is not accepted, we will remain [in favour] of the old solution, because we think that one electoral unit is not adequate for all citizens and regions in the country,” said DUI lawmaker Rexhail Ismaili.

There are no special quotas in parliament for the ethnic Albanian minority, which makes up at least 25 per cent of Macedonia’s population of 2.1 million. But their predominance in two out of the six electoral units has traditionally resulted in the election of between 20 and 30 ethnic Albanian MPs.