The president of the ruling party, the VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski cut his holiday in Turkey short, as the media have put it, “in order to help deal with the serious consequences of the storm and heavy rainfall”, and “to inspect the damage personally”.
In a disaster and tragedy of such magnitude, any help and assistance is invaluable and appreciated, however, preserving the foundations of the regulation of the state are also important, and yesterday, quite the opposite took place: as head of a political party, Nikola Gruevski began ordering state functionaries and officials on how to handle the crisis.
From television reports, the former Prime Minister can be seen visiting regions which have been seriously affected by the floods, and Gruevski continues to act like the “Boss of all bosses”. The president of the VMRO-DPMNE party, is acting inadequately and is treating party officials as students, and is ordering officials from his own party, such as the current Prime Minister, Emil Dimitirev, the Vice Prime Minister, Nikola Todorov, Ministers, and Mayors.
He has been overheard saying to the current Prime minister, Emil Dimitireiv, ( “I think we have to schedule a session in Government”, “So, to recap…” and “So, this is what we are going to do…”.)
Furthermore, instead of following protocol in such situations, Gruevski has told the General of the ARM to deploy an additional 400 soldiers to help with the floods, as if it is normal procedure for a leader of a political party to tell the army to deploy soldiers, even in the most extraordinary circumstances.
In the following videos, Gruevski can be seen and heard making phone calls on speaker-phone in front of all the country’s press, he immediately took to his mobile calling officials, generals, Ministers and Majors in an attempt to mobilize relief efforts, however, this behaviour is far from normal and from normal protocol. In the videos, he can be heard saying, (“The Chief of Staff of the Army will be responsible for deploying additional troops to help with efforts on the ground”. Even Nikola Todorov went on to say, “Gruevski has contacted the Cheif of Staff of the Army and they have agreed to send more soldiers with equipment”.)
It is interesting that not even the Commander in Chief, President Gjorgi Ivanov knows these current numbers, as he has only spoken of 400 soldiers. The country’s president resembles a spokesman for the municipality, (“It is summer so it is possible that there will be various inconveniences” !!!), and not the father of the nation who are in shock after such a disaster.
Yesterday, not even the Minister of Defence, Zoran Jolevski was in the field, so the image of Gruevski performing the responsibilities as “all in one” is now complete.
“Today we have 400 members of the military who are assisting the local population in order to deal with these consequences of the storm. Furthermore, there are 300 police officers who are also involved. Crisis management has been activated. The Steering Committee yesterday activated all instruments and measures for such situations and all relevant institutions are already in the field. The government is expected to declare a day of mourning. They will also open an account where people can donate to help citizens to remediate damages. Once again I want to repeat, I urge all citizens to help because now help is needed, now is the time to be humane. It is summer so it is possible that there will be various inconveniences. Medical assistance has been offered to those who are in need of it and all institutions that want to help are already assisting in efforts to clear up the damage caused by the floods”, said Ivanov.
