VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski says that the campaign of opposition SDSM party to sway public opinion using the publication of wiretaps has failed, and that SDSM was facing a major electoral defeat which forced it to withdraw from the agreement to hold elections. Gruevski adds that SDSM leader Zaev has brought the country and himself in dire straits and is hoping for help from his outside supporters, primarily in using the Special Prosecutor's Office that was established to investigate the wiretapping affair.
"Zaev knows very well in what kind of a mess he put the country and himself. He hopes that those who dragged him this far will help him out of it. He knows that not only is VMRO-DPMNE not finished, but if he had gone to the elections, he would have been finished as a politician. Many people in SDSM, who are better able to make political calculations, are actually hoping this is the case and realize that, while Zaev leads the party, he can only do damage, but can never win power. Now that the elections have been cancelled, he bought some time for himself, so he can make additional mischief and manipulations", Gruevski said in the first part of an interview with Telegraf.mk news site.
Gruevski says that VMRO-DPMNE continues to support the Special Prosecutor's Office as an institution. "We support the idea of an independent body that will fully investigate the matters that Zaev tried to misconstrue last year. We want to have it cleared up because we are innocent of the charges SDSM's leader subscribed to us in his dirty operation for which he himself said that was the work of a foreign intelligence service, and the whole of Macedonia heard him say it. But the people working in this institution showed too many weaknesses in the past six months, too much unprofessionalism and we must express our disappointment and concern. We are a small country, with a small capital and everybody quickly learns everything here, about behaviors and intentions. Unfortunately, we can't see the SPO acting with professionalism, unbiased approach, non-partisanship, presuming innocence and acting equally toward everybody. We see quite the opposite", Gruevski said. In the interview, Gruevski declined to say which are the external parties that are supporting Zaev, saying that as a politician he can't damage the interests of the country, but added that "the majority of the public is pretty much in the clear" on this issue.
Speaking about the protests organized by SDSM in the past month and a half, Gruevski said that the NGO groups organizing the protests are largely funded by the George Soros network of organizations, which often engage in bizarre indoctrination of young activists.
"The trainings are led by leading organizers of the Soros group, and from what we've heard, the goal is to recruit young and perspective people with money and plenty of free travel, which is the main motive for them to come to these lectures and brainwashing attempts. Those who eventually fall out from the program, who do not succumb to this indoctrination, are told to stop coming, so that the money can be focused on the ones who can be more effective. A participant told me that in a training in 2009 all present were asked to climb on a table and step on the VMRO-DPMNE program. Completely crazy stuff. Or, they were asked to repeat in a chorus "This Government Is Not Good". Things that would shock a person. These lecturers and attendees are later tasked to go on TV programs and fiercely attack VMRO-DPMNE and its Government, to write editorials, some of them get to be journalists or to lead programs and news sites, plenum meetings or protests, public debates, and to write negatively about us abroad, to prepare thousands of letters and emails for foreign news outlets and commentators whom they persuade that there is a lack of freedom and democracy in the country", Gruevski said.
According to the former Prime Minister, VMRO-DPMNE is facing two opposition groups an official one in SDSM, and an unofficial group in the Soros network of non-Governmental organizations. Gruevski says that the Soros NGOs are active organizing protests when VMRO-DPMNE is in office, organizing protests, but when SDSM holds the Government, then they usually work on projects supporting he Government. "This is not the case only in Macedonia. You see this in other countries, mainly in Eastern Europe and the Balkans.In these past two and a half decades, VMRO-DPMNE relied solely on the people and we work to be as much as we can to its service. To meet our obligations toward the public, and to fulfill their expectations. SDSM is oriented toward its sponsors from abroad, and work in their service, not in service toward the people", Gruevski told Telegraf.mk in his interview.