Former VMRO-DPMNE President and Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said that he expects additional raids against his family in Macedonia, conducted as a way to distract the public from the catastrophic failure by the Zaev regime to handle the coronavirus epidemic. Gruevski’s home was raided yesterday, with leaks from the police and the prosecutors to media outlets close to the ruling SDSM party prepared for media effect – that Gruevski allegedly had multiple apartments which were owned by people close to him, as well as kept four pistols in one of them.

Dozens of fake news reports in the pro-regime outlets just confirmed the nature of the persecution I’m facing, which is now intensifying. “We found three new apartments owned by Gruevski”. “Gruevski had six apartments”. “One apartment was owned by Gruevski’s secretary” were just some of the headlines used in this trial by media which are tasked with producing fake news about me. One of the goals of the raid by the repressive institutions of the state against my family is to divert attention of the public. This is a third such raid after I left from Macedonia, without counting the periodic visits by uniformed police to inquire “if I am at home”, Gruevski said.

He confirmed that he had four pistols, which he kept with valid licenses in a safe, locked away from the reach of his young daughters – which was used by the pro-Zaev media outlets to gin up reports that he kept illegal weapons at home. Regarding the “priceless artworks” that were also reported, Gruevski says that all paintings he owns were from Macedonian painters, of modest value, often received as wedding presents and were stated in his regular reports of his property status.

And as for the apartments he allegedly owns, Gruevski said that the regime media outlets are trying to portray rented apartments, in which he invested and had the investments deducted from the rent, as his property.

I fully expect new raids in my home. I am informed that uniformed and plainclothes officers are constantly circling it. I also expect the media close to the Government to hold special reports and news items where they will invite the usual paid quasi experts and journalists close to the Government to repeat for the hundredth time the same fake news about me. I can imagine the raids, pressure and repression aimed at businessmen and other people, some of whom I don’t even know, for the purpose of getting them to become part of a case against me. The organs of repression have unfortunately been turned into local branches of the SDSM party and work exclusively to prosecute opponents of the Government, except for cases that result from public pressure, such as the Racket investigation. There will be no and there can be no justice with this Government. Peace they have, at least for the time being. But at the price of repression and with terrorizing the people, with persecution, arrests, raids and staged charges, Gruevski writes, noting that the slogan of Zaev’s SDSM party during their Colored Revolution was “no justice, no peace”.