English
The visit by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte to Macedonia today reminded the public on his previous visit, in 2021, when he was seen as intervening to preserve the Zaev regime for the next three years.
Rutte was Dutch Prime Minister at the time, and Zaev had just suffered a humiliating veto from Bulgaria for Macedonia’s EU membership and badly lost the local elections. This caused a realignment in the Parliament and the VMRO-DPMNE led opposition cobbeled together the 61 votes it needed to throw out the SDSM – DUI Government.
But on the day of the vote, one member of Parliament, Kastriot Rexhepi, who had previously worked in the Dutch Embassy in Skopje, went missing. The opposition lost the majority it needed and the vote of no confidence collapsed. In the backdrop of these events Rutte made a visit to Macedonia, which was notable as a rare such move by the leader of a significant EU country. His personal prestige contributed to the outcome in the Parliament.
Rexhepi resurfaced several days later, saying that he was a guest of Zaev in his residence and that he changed his mind about the vote after his wife saw French President Emmanuel Macron (whose country also dealt Zaev a humiliating veto) that he could unlock the EU enlargement process. Zaev’s regime survived until 2024, even though he withdrew as Prime Minister.