I am convinced that if Gruevski decides to “hit back” or to use one of his phrases “to stab Macedonia in the back”, he could damage Macedonia, but he can’t put the security of the country at risk, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in an interview with Deutsche Welle.
“I do not think there are any implications regarding security. Macedonia does not depend on any individual, nor does any individual hold that kind of information to cause some security risks to the country. Of course, Macedonia may be damaged in some way, because we are talking about a man who was prime minister for ten years. Everything that is confidential, state secrets, official secrets, remained mostly with him,” says Zaev.
Regarding the investigation into the ex-prime ministers escape, Zaev says he has some knowledge of parts of the investigation, but he will wait for the institutions to be complete their work before giving further comments.
When asked why no-one resigned on moral grounds, Zaev says Oliver Spasovski had discussed it with him.
“As a colleague in Government and my longtime associate, we always talked about moral grounds in such circumstances. Because, if there is moral responsibility, there should be arguments for it, an explanation, to locate the moral hazard, the problem, shortcomings… I do not see such shortcomings. However, if it turns out that there was a responsibility – I will require that it be specifically dealt with,” says Zaev.
The prime minister says the constitutional changes process and the two-thirds majority will not be held hostage by issues within the jurisdiction of the judiciary.
“If we go round the process of constitutional changes, and destroy the rule of law, it will be in vain. Then we will receive a negative assessment from EU member states, who are cautiously following our processes,” emphasizes Zaev.