SKOPJE, 19. DEC. 2016 – Brussels was concerned about the high tension and negative rhetoric in Macedonia, the European Commission said, following an inflammatory speech by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. The European Commission expressed “concern” over the “tensions and the negative rhetoric” present in Macedonia in the past few days. Spokesperson Maja Kocijancic called on the country’s political players to “act responsibly” so that people’s faith in Macedonia’s institutions and in the democratic processes is restored. The response comes after prominent members of the ruling VMRO DPMNE party openly threatened opposition parties and NGOs and accused the State Electoral Commission, DIK, and foreign diplomats of trying to steal their election victory. The inflammatory rhetoric culminated on Saturday with the speech by former Prime Minister and VMRO DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski in which he accused the DIK of taking “unlawful” decisions, claimed foreign ambassadors were interfering in its work, and threatened to shut down civil sector groups allegedly linked to George Soros. He also said his party would not accept any election reruns that, according to him, were aimed at robbing his party of its narrow victory in the December 11 early elections. Gruevski delivered his uncompromising speech after the DIK accepted one out of eight electoral complaints filed by the opposition BESA party and after it rejected all other complaints filed by BESA and by the main opposition Social Democratic Union, SDSM. Political Science Professor Todor Pendarov said Gruevski’s speech was worrying and would “not contribute to calming the tensions and the sharp divide in society”. He added: “With this statement, which is a direct attack on the international factor… Gruevski is distancing the country from its strategic goals, [membership of] NATO and the EU”. The Administrative Court will have the final say on opposition complaints about the conduct of the election. The ruling could yet affect the final number of seats that the main ruling and opposition parties won in the December 11 vote. According to preliminary unofficial results, VMRO DPMNE won 51 of the 120 seats in parliament and the SDSM won 49. A former Macedonian Ambassador to NATO, Nano Ruzin, said Gruevski’s threats showed that he was desperate to stay in power at any cost, despite the prospect of him not being able to form a stable government. “In search for a escape from this condition, Gruevski will desperately try to carry out a different scenario: to become part of some possible wide ruling coalition at any cost, or to create the highest level of autocracy, which will have unforeseen consequences for the country and for the democracy,” he said. Macabre ‘death notices’ of Western diplomats on internet: Soon after Gruevski’s speech, falsified images edited to picture the death notices of a number of Western ambassadors and foreign representatives appeared on the image-sharing website Imgur. Fake death notices appeared on Imgur. The fake death notices of US and EU Ambassadors Jess Baily and Samuel Zbogar are among the edited images, as was that of former EU mediator in Macedonia Peter Vanhouotte and former European Parliament rapporteur on Macedonia Richard Howitt. Alliance with Albanian party looks less likely: Gruevski’s recent harsh language towards the international community could meanwhile hamper his party’s efforts to renew its coalition with the main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI. “Even if DUI wanted to ally [with VMRO DPMNE’, it will be hard to support and justify Gruevski’s anti-Western rhetoric now having in mind that [Euro-Atlantic] integration is a key part of the DUI’s platform,” an unnamed DUI source told Deutsche Welle. Officially, the DUI – which won 10 seats – has so far refrained from commenting on whether it will renew its coalition in government with VMRO DPMNE. The poor electoral result of just 10 MPs, compared to the 19 seats it won in the election 2014, is seen by some as punishment from their electorate for sticking with Gruevski for eight years. Most observers agree that the close result will make very hard for either of the two main political blocs to form a government on their own. Some have suggested the only alternative is the formation of a wide coalition of all parties that will pave the way for new general elections.
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