Zoran Zaev - The Traitor

[Pelagonija]

Zoran Zaev a different perspective

I was watching a documentary about Bulgaria regarding its EU membership and its slow move to liberalism. It touched on topics such as the 90s economic collapse and nationalism in BG. It elaborated on the wars that Bulgaria lost for Macedonia and on how modern Bulgarians have moved away from nationalism and they didn't get involved in the Balkan wars of the 90s..

This documentary got me thinking. Whilst national, cultural and religious interests are expendable for the Zoran Zaev government, I ask the following questions;

A) Could a liberal name/symbol changed Eu member bi national state bring stability and economic improvement in Macedonia at the expense of the Macedonian national state?

B) Could ZZ destroy the ethnic based party system in MKD by implementing a bi national state and appeasing EU Greek/Albanian demands and gaining entry to the EU/NATO

C) Are SDSM simply living in reality and can see the writing on the wall?, Macedonian TFR is amongst the lowest in the world, divorce is on the rise and emigration is high, you can't foster nationalist policies with no people. National groups have been disappearing and will continue to disappear, why would we be any different?


I've been been to BG, streets from east to west have Macedonian names, though the people I came across didnt give a crap about nationalism. Same scenario in Agean Macedonia. The macos especially the younger generation are not interested, what's important is making a living. Hence the above queries.

[Tomche Makedonche]

Zaev Unveils New Cabinet in Macedonia

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-pm-designate-zaev-reveals-new-cabinet-05-29-2017

Zaev Unveils New Cabinet in Macedonia

Prime Minister-designate Zoran Zaev's new cabinet, likely to be approved this week, will contain 25 ministers, most of whom come from his own Social Democratic Party, SDSM, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, and the Alliance for Albanians

Zoran Zaev revealed the composition of his cabinet late Sunday, which parliament is expected to approved this week. Speaker of Parliament Talat Xhaferi has set the date for the session to start on Tuesday.

The key posts are to be shared between Zaev’s Social Democratic Party, SDSM, and Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.

While the SDSM-led alliance which holds 49 of the 120 seats in parliament, has appointed 17 ministers, the DUI, which controls ten seats, has appointed six and the Alliance for Albanians, which has three MPs, has appointed two.

Besa [Oath], the second-largest ethnic Albanian party, decided not to join the new government but will support it in parliament.

The two Albanian parties plus the SDSM together control 62 of the 120 seats in parliament and - with the external support of Besa - that number reaches 67.

SDSM vice-president Radmila Shekerinska will run the Defence Ministry while the party's secretary-general, Oliver Spasovski, will be the new Interior Minister.

Veteran diplomat Nikola Dimitrov, who was a VMRO-DPMNE dissident and a critic of the previous government, led by Nikola Gruevski, will be the Foreign Minister.

Mila Carovska, from the SDSM, will run the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies while Dragan Tevdovski, from the same party, will be the new Finance Minister.

Renata Deskoska will be the new Education Minister while the Agriculture Ministry will be led by Ljupco Nikolovski. Goran Sugareski will be the new Transport Minister and Robert Alagjozovski will head the Ministry of Culture.

Damjan Mancevski will be Information Society and Administration Minister.

The SDSM-led alliance has also appointed seven ministers without portfolio, Koco Angjushev, Robert Popovski, Edmond Ademi, Adnan Kjahil, Samka Ibraimovski, Zorica Apostolovska and Zoran Sapuric.

Meanwhile, Hazbi Lika, from the DUI, will be Vice Prime Minister in charge of the 2001 Framework Accord [the agreement that ended an amed uprising by ethnic Albanians in the country] while Bujar Osmani will lead European integration processes.

Sadulla Duraku will be the new Environment Minister while Bulent Saliu will be the new Justice Minister.

Kreshnik Bektashi will be the new Economy Minister while Ramiz Merko will be a minister without portfolio in charge of attracting foreign investment.

The Alliance for Albanians will have two ministers: Arben Taravari, at Health, and Suhel Fazliu, running Local Government.

Macedonia had been without a new government since early general elections on December 11 failed to resolve an ongoing political crisis centering on allegations of wiretapping and corruption by the previous government led by the VMRO-DPMNE party.

Zaev finally obtained the presidential mandate to form the new government on May 17.

The new government faces the daunting task of rebuilding institutions, financial consolidation and curbing corruption, if it is to live up to its promises.

Observers say Macedonia needs deep reform of the justice system as well as the reestablishment of professional standards in the police in order to deal with what is regarded as a widespread culture of corruption – a legacy of the previous government, which was accused of “hijacking” state institutions and of relying on authoritarian practices.

The re-establishment of strong professional institutions and an administration free from the tight grip of political parties is a priority, they say, if the country is to restore a sense of the rule of law and of justice and equal opportunities.

Removing the government's grip on the media and the business sector is another must if Macedonia is to become a genuine democracy, revive its stagnating economy and eventually join NATO and the EU.

[DraganOfStip]

Yet another government whose ministers have no experience or qualifications for the offices they're appointed to.
The circus continues...

[Pelagonija]

How depressing..

[Soldier of Macedon]

Meanwhile, Hazbi Lika, from the DUI, will be Vice Prime Minister in charge of the 2001 Framework Accord [the agreement that ended an amed uprising by ethnic Albanians in the country] while Bujar Osmani will lead European integration processes.

Great choices. One in charge of capitulation within Macedonia and the other in charge of capitulation within Europe.

[Pelagonija]

Man I ask myself, how do the relatives of the fallen heroes feel when they see those uneducated drug dealing pedophiles in tax funded government roles. Is this not the ultimate insult. You can't make this stuff up in a horror movie..

Farking makes me sick. We are such a c$nt race.

[Albo]

Macedonia's New Govt Eases Burden on Poor

Macedonia's new government is expected to start work with a set of popular measures aimed at easing the cost of living for the poorest members of society, such as boosting the mininum wage

rom undertaking several long-term daunting tasks, which will require much more time and dedication, the new cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Zoran Zaev plans to start work by proposing several swift regulations aimed at easing some financial burdens on hard-pressed citizens.

One urgent task for the new government - which is expected to be approved by parliament by Wednesday night - is to scrap the yearly state-run exams in primary and high schools known as "external testing", Zaev said on Monday.

The abolition of the exams is urgent because, under a decision of the previous government, the tests for thousands of pupils this year are due to begin next Monday, June 5. "We hope that we will be able to scrap the external [testing] by then," Zaev said.

The introduction of these exams for students and pupils sparked massive protests in late 2014 and early 2015. While the former government eventually abandoned the tests, pupils continued protesting against a measure deemed unproductive and unnecessarily stressful.

Another measure that Zaev has promised to do in the first 100 days of the new government is to increase the minimum wage from 9,000 to 12,000 Denars [around 200 euros] a month.

This concerns thousands of low-income workers, especially in the textile industry, who complain that in some cases they do not even get the minimum guaranteed wage.

"Increasing the minimum wage to 12,000 denars, once the government is elected, seems like a correct move," economy professor Marjan Petreski said.

He was more skeptical about whether Zaev's Social Democrats can fulfill one of their most eye-catching promises made before the December 11 election, which is to increase the monthly minimum salary to 16,000 [some 260 euros] and the average salary to 30,000 [around 500 euros] by the year 2020. Average salaries are currently just over 300 euros.

The third swift measure that Zaev has promised is to re-introduce the so-called “off-peak tariff” that was operative during certain periods of the day and overnight, which allowed many poorer people to use cheaper electricity. This tariff was scrapped in 2014, causing protests.

The fourth measure that the new government has pledged to enact as soon as possible is to ease the financial strain on low-income families by scrapping the monthly payment of radio and television taxes, which help to finance the public broadcaster, Macedonian Radio and Television.

The new government has pledged to finance the broadcaster directly from the budget, which would save each household some 40 to 50 euros a year.

While these popular measures may boost the government's popularity in the short term, Zaev on Monday also said that one of his priorities would be to prepare the government teams for much tougher reforms expected ahead.

The new government faces an array of daunting tasks related to rebuilding institutions, financial consolidation and curbing corruption, if it is to live up to its promises. - See more at:

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/macedonia-s-new-govt-starts-term-with-popular-measures-05-29-2017#sthash.n3XnUoGd.dpuf

[Soldier of Macedon]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/35716655/macedonia-parliament-votes-in-social-democrat-zaev-as-pm/#page1

Macedonia parliament votes in Social Democrat Zaev as PM

June 1, 2017

Skopje (AFP) - Macedonia's parliament voted in Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev as prime minister late Wednesday, in a first step towards ending the country's two-year political crisis. The 42-year old Zaev, an economist by training, won the support of 62 lawmakers in the 120-seat parliament, obtaining votes from MPs of his SDSM party and the main ethnic Albanian parties. "I conclude that the parliament voted in the government of Macedonia," parliamentary speaker Talat Xhaferi said after the vote. The parliamentary vote came six months after a snap general election in December.

The country of around two million people, which aspires to join both the European Union and NATO, has been mired in a deep political crisis for two years since a huge wiretapping scandal erupted. Nikola Gruevski, who leads the rival conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, stepped down last year after a decade as premier ahead of the early election, which was called in a bid to end the turmoil. Although his party narrowly won the most seats in the December vote, Gruevski was unable to strike a deal with kingmaking Albanian groups. Zaev's social democrat SDSM party then won their support. The Albanian parties, who have eight out of the 25 ministers in the new government, have demanded that Albanian be made an official language throughout Macedonia as the ethnic group makes a quarter of the country's population.

Highlighting the key demand of the minority's parties in joining the government, parliamentary speaker Talat Xhaferi opened the session on Tuesday in Albanian. However, Xhaferi -- an ethnic Albanian who also served as defence minister in Gruevski's government -- quickly switched to Macedonian "until a new language law is adopted."

"We are pledging to enable an adequate implementation of all languages," Zaev said in his address to lawmakers. The issue sparked protests by nationalists and initially prompted conservative President Gjorge Ivanov to refuse to task Zaev with forming a new government. Under strong international pressure following violence that broke out in the parliament last month, Ivanov eventually agreed to do so.

Zaev vowed to relaunch the process of country's accession to the European Union and NATO, blocked by his predecessor. "Our goal is EU and NATO membership, in the shortest possible time," Zaev told the parliament as he presented the program of his cabinet. Under Gruevski, Macedonia drifted away from its proclaimed goal to join the two blocs, in particular since 2008, when Greece vetoed its NATO membership due to a long-lasting row over the country's name.

Athens says the country should not call itself Macedonia as Greece's northern province bears the same name. The Balkan nation plunged into crisis in 2015 after Zaev, who has repeatedly locked horns with Gruevski, released tapes that appeared to show official and widespread wiretapping and top-level corruption by the then government.

So, he is pledging to enable an adequate implementation of all languages and his goal is EU and NATO membership in the shortest possible time. How can he possibly achieve that by not further eroding Macedonia's identity and sovereignty? A disaster on the horizon.

[Bill77]

So, he is pledging to enable an adequate implementation of all languages and his goal is EU and NATO membership....

I just can't get my head around this NATO membership business.
ffs, it seems Macedonian citizens will not fight let alone die for their own country, what makes anyone think they would for another?



And for some news.....
Well, we are certainly off to a roaring start with the new Government in Macedonia.

From what I can gather via Twitter......(Mabe Dragan can shed some light)
Outgoing Health Minister Todorov was nearly killed
A man shot at him three times during the hand-over. Left wing media report the shooter was the grandfather of a little girl who died in 2015
The girl suffered from very serious spine scoliosis. Opposition SDSM then milked the case for all it was worth propaganda wise.
SDSM media kept accusing Todorov of being "a murderer", Soros NGO activists paraded wih pictures of the girl around him...
SDSM claimed that the Ministry deliberately delayed on providing funding for a surgery, even used her in their pre-election ads.
Doctors brought in from abroad said that the case is extremely difficult and likely inoperable, but SDSM propaganda would just not let go
And now a murder attempt. This is all product of the special propaganda war waged in Macedonia for two and a half years.

[DraganOfStip]

I just can't get my head around this NATO membership business.
ffs, it seems Macedonian citizens will not fight let alone die for their own country, what makes anyone think they would for another?

They already are, the Macedonian army has been involved in NATO "peace" missions in Afghanistan and Iraq since the invasions.

From what I can gather via Twitter......(Mabe Dragan can shed some light)
Outgoing Health Minister Todorov was nearly killed

Already posted about this in the Latest News And Developments thread.

[Bill77]

They already are, the Macedonian army has been involved in NATO "peace" missions in Afghanistan and Iraq since the invasions.

yes I'm aware there was a representation sent by the former MAK government inorder to suck up to the globalists of Europe.

But if you can't see my sarcasm, taking into account the much publicised in this forum, the dilemmas Macedonia is facing ie: further loosing its sovereignty (what ever we had to begin with) and the passiveness of its people over the last decade or two...... Then I apologise for not making it any more obvious from the beginning.

Already posted about this in the Latest News And Developments thread.

Judging by the timeline it was minutes apart with my post. We probably wrote at the same time, you are just quicker than me.

Anyway..... SDSM were opportunistic using the young girls death as publicity stunts such as parading with pictures of that little girl (Which is poor but expected with politics)
And do you or anyone else in this forum believe someone would deliberately delay funding for surgery to save a young girls life (that's if this girls case was operable). I know Todorov was a politician and politics sometimes is a game... But you would hope humanity kicks in and politics takes a back seat when it comes to saving a young child's life.

[Tomche Makedonche]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/01/world/europe/macedonia-zoran-zaev-election.html?_r=0

Macedonia Has New Government, but Rocky Road Ahead

By Aleksandar Dimishkovski - JUNE 1, 2017

SKOPJE, Macedonia — After two years of a deepening political crisis marked by a corruption scandal and a violent confrontation with an angry mob in Parliament in April that left several officials bloodied, Macedonia has a new government for the first time in more than a decade.

But the government, elected on Wednesday by a slim majority in Parliament and led by Zoran Zaev of the center-left Social Democrats, faces the daunting task of restoring normality to a country racked by political divisions, a feeble economy and tense relations between ethnic Macedonians and ethnic Albanians.

Mr. Zaev, the new prime minister, seems well aware of the challenges ahead and has promised urgently needed changes and nationwide unification.

“Most people feel relieved about the change of power,” he said in an interview. “Some even say that we were ‘too eager’ ” to govern.

“The fact is,” he said, “nothing is further from the truth. We know that the hardest part is yet to come, when we will have to face the damage left” by the previous government, led by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party.

The nation’s first change in power after 11 years was greeted with cautious optimism by the United States government and European officials.

The State Department congratulated Mr. Zaev on his victory and said in a statement that the United States looked forward to working with the new government as it strove to implement reforms that “strengthen rule of law and judicial independence, media freedom and government accountability.”

Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and Johannes Hahn, the European commissioner for neighborhood policy and enlargement negotiations, said in a joint statement on Thursday:

“We expect all parliamentary parties to put their divisions aside now and work jointly on delivering, from the outset, on a common reform agenda that would benefit the country in its entirety and bring the country back on its European integration path.”

Macedonia, a small, landlocked Balkan country of two million, transformed from a fragile but promising democracy to an authoritarian state under Nikola Gruevski, who was prime minister from 2006 to 2016. During the period, the country witnessed a degradation in the rights of the news media, a heavily biased judiciary system, rampant corruption and abuses of power.

The stability of the country, formerly a republic in Yugoslavia, is strategically important, because it is in the center of the so-called Balkan route taken by migrants fleeing war-torn countries. It applied to join the European Union and NATO, but a long-simmering dispute with Greece over the use of the name “Macedonia” has derailed that plan.

Two years ago, a wiretapping scandal erupted after secret recordings caught top government officials discussing everything from rigging votes to covering up killings. In April, Mr. Zaev and at least 10 others were injured after a mob of angry nationalists attacked lawmakers in Parliament. The mob was protesting the election of a new speaker supported by the Social Democrats and parties representing the country’s ethnic Albanian minority, who make up about one-quarter of the population.

“Macedonia is a deeply polarized society, where citizens are being divided based on their religion, ethnicity, gender, political views,” said Dona Kosturanova, the executive director of the Youth Educational Forum, a nongovernmental organization.

“Some of the political elites in the country, including the former ruling party, are only deepening the gaps between the people, instead of working to bridge them closer,” she added.

The nationalist Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party, known as VMRO-DPMNE, won the most seats in elections in December, but not enough to form a government. After the April attack inside Parliament, President Gjorge Ivanov opened the door for an alternative government.

Mr. Gruevski attributed his party’s loss to foreign interference, which he said was prompted by his party’s insistence “on a fair solution for the name issue with Greece, which blocked our E.U. and NATO integration” effort. Greece objects to the name “Macedonia” in part because a region of Greece has the same name.

Bojan Maricik, the executive director of Eurothink: Center for European Strategies, an independent think tank based in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, said he believed that Western governments did try to influence events in the country, but only to prevent wide-scale interethnic conflict and to ensure that basic democratic principles were being respected, such as the rule of law and freedom of the press.

He said that in the past few years, Macedonia’s blocked integration into the European Union had “fueled nationalistic tensions insomuch as the level of unprecedented corruption and power abuse.”

Any revival of ethnic tensions, however, would be an “explosive” issue for neighboring Serbia, Kosovo and Albania, Mr. Maricik added.

Mr. Zaev, the new prime minister, said that it would take six months for Macedonians to see the first results of his changes and around two years for everyone to start feeling the improvements in the country.

For the international community, the violence in Parliament in late April was a serious warning about the future and the stability of Macedonia.

“Any repeat of such acts would seriously endanger the country’s European perspective,” said Mr. Hahn, who in the summer of 2015 brokered the deal that was supposed to end the country’s biggest political crisis since independence, prompted by the wiretapping allegations, which revealed wrongdoing including fraud in the electoral system and government manipulation of the news media and of the judiciary.

“We need a strong and independent judicial system, critical media and strong opposition, a strong Parliament that will control the executive organs, not act on instructions from the government,” Mr. Zaev said. “That is why we will leave all control mechanisms to the independent experts, to safeguard the country from us, from the Social Democrats and from the government coalition.”

[makgerman]

Tomce,
This same article was linked on Facebook by a well known representative of Vinozito.

It wasn't the link that bothered me, but his comments on some of his posts where he appears to support SDSM because of his belief that Macedonia will have a greater chance of being admitted into EU/USA under SDS. We all know our name/identity will need to be changed if we went that way.

He is strictly pro-US/EU and anti-Russia, says it's none of his business to comment on Macedonia's internal affairs but defends Xjaferi's appointment as the Speaker etc.

Has Vinozito always been the same or am I missing something?

[Amphipolis]

The Rainbow Party totally aligns with Soros, it is anti-nationalistic and pro-minorities.

[Skolovranec]

What about the new general secretary who is anti-NATO? How the f*ck would that work out?