President Stevo Pendarovski insisted that he has no actual relationship with drug runners from the village of Grcec near Skopje, after pictures of him with the gang leaders surfaced.
Members of the gang were arrested in a large scale operation earlier this week, but the bosses fled – apparently after they were tipped off by moles in the police or in the prosecutor’s office.
Pendarovski won the 2019 elections due mainly to support among ethnic Albanians, and during the campaign he would frequently be pictured with suspicious characters from the Albanian underworld, who delivered him the votes. Among them was Orhan Bajrami, pictured with Pendarovski (to his left). He is now one of the fugitives who the police is looking for after the failed raid. The office of President Pendarovski issued a denial that he has a relationship with the gang, pointing to the fact that “Pendarovski is standing in the picture” and not sitting down at a meeting with them.
The office of the President strongly reacts to the allegations made by the VMRO-DPMNE party, insinuating some alleged connection between President Stevo Pendarovski and persons involved in the investigation. During the 2019 campaign President Pendarovski visited places across our country and took pictures with all citizens who asked him to. President Pendarovski does not personally know the people at the photograph. As you can see, the President is not sat down with the persons, but is photographed standing, on their request. For this, the office of the President denies any connection with the persons involved in the case, the statement said.
Pendarovski won over 95 percent of the votes in Grcec in 2019, with over 500 votes, compared to about 20 for his opponent Gordana Siljanovska Davkova from VMRO-DPMNE.
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