The former Prime Minister, and the current leader of the VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski, after a short break, has begun yet again to act like the “de facto” Prime Minister.
The last example of this, was the so called “promotion of measures taken in the field of sport”, where he acted like he ran the whole Government, or in the smallest case, the Agency of Youth Sport.
“We set out our next major activity to be through a variety of activities and measures, providing support and wind to the back of athletes and sports federations, which, we believe, will bring greater success,” said Gruevski, but without clarifying who “we” are.
“We have decided on several system solutions”, Gruevski said and again did not clarify whether he meant “we” the party, or “we” the Government.
He even announced a system of measures that require new taxes, exemption from taxes, budget funding – all activities the government handles, and not a political party.
The first measure provides for organizers of games of chance in betting shops on a monthly basis to save 3% of the profits, and the organizers of games of chance with slot machines club to save 1.5% of their profit for the funding of sports federations which are Olympic disciplines, and the Macedonian Olympic committee.
Will the VMRO-DPMNE take a profit from the book-keepers or will the executive government ?
The second measure provides companies that finance sports clubs, federations and athletes to be exempt from some of the corporate income tax.
How could the party be exempting companies from tax ?
The third measure provides a direct budget for financing of sports that do not have their own league. For this purpose a further € 700,000 per year will be allocated. The first sport to be supported is boxing, and then it is reported that karate for men and women to be the second sport to be supported.
Gruevski did not say whether the VMRO-DPMNE will allocate € 700.000 or the government will ?
With the last measure, it is expected that the top sports coaches will be hired from abroad for the sport academies that will help create new football, basketball, handball, tennis players.
How will the VMRO-DPMNE hire people from abroad into sports ?
One of the main observations in the Priebe report was the party in power has not been separated from the state, or the state is not separated from the party.
This separation is now a an obligation arising from the Pržino Agreement as a key requirement for a way out of the political crisis.
This kind of rhetoric from Gruevski questions part of the Agreement, which provides concrete steps to ensure the separation of party and state, as to prevent abuse of state institutions and resources for party purposes.
