As luck would have it, Katica Janeva was dismissed just before September 15th – a day which lives in the Macedonian collective memory as the last time the SDSM party promised – and utterly failed – to bring justice and the rule of law.

SDSM were last in power between 2002 and 2006, a dramatic period for Macedonia. The VMRO-DPMNE – DPA led Government elected in 1998 was brought down by a wiretapping scandal (of course) and the subsequent war of 2001. SDSM, their media outlets, intelligence officers and the NGO sector insisted that they have evidence of huge crimes and corruption on the part of VMRO-DPMNE officials. The 2002 elections were set for September 15th, and then SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski turned the day into a rallying cry.

On September 15th we will score a major victory for Macedonia, Crvenkovski would chant at the rallies.

He won the elections and immediately his Interior Minister, top banker Hari Kostov, began a campaign of arrests and persecution of mid level VMRO officials. Just like now, hundreds of opposition officials and activists were arrested on dubious charges.

Meanwhile, the economy tanked, leading to an unemployment rate of 38 percent, and the humiliating concessions on national issues – handed out to the Albanian terrorist leaders who formed the DUI party and became part of Crvenkovski’s coalition – riled the public. The failure of Crvenkovski’s promises was such that SDSM lost not only the 2006 elections but all subsequent elections until the engineered political crisis of 2015 – and even then, SDSM lost the 2016 elections, but was installed into power with the help of Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva and pressure exerted on the ethnic Albanian parties to reject a coalition with VMRO.

On your September 15th your Special Prosecutor’s Office died. Many factors supported this institution, trying to portray it as the pillar of justice and key to the fight against corruption, but in the end, all now realize that it was a shameful institution. We will not forget your persecution of VMRO-DPMNE. We will not forget the pressures and the trickery to rename the country. We will not forget the well paid campaign to undermine the law and the justice. All will be held responsible, said VMRO-DPMNE deputy leader Vlado Misajlovski.