Aleksandar Verusevski, the son of notorious former security chief and Zaev’s security adviser Zoran Verusevski, issued a public New Year threat to Zaev.

Get ready rabbit (Zaev), you will be chased by LIONS in 2021, Aleksandar Verusevski wrote.

He has issued similar statements in the past, making a very unusual pairing with his father, who brought Zaev to power by orchestrating the 2015 wiretapping scandal. Zoran Verusevski was head of the UBK secret service before orchestrating a wiretapping scandal in 2000, which helped destabilize the then VMRO-DPMNE led Ljubco Georgievski Government and arguably contributed to the 2001 war.

In 2015 Verusevski used loyalists in the service to repeat the scandal, destabilizing the Nikola Gruevski Government and helping stir up the Colored Revolution and bring Zaev to power, for which he was rewarded with lifting of coup charges and a seat in Zaev’s Government. But his son, who was in the past prosecuted for attempted murder and has a reputation of lawlessness, has turned on Zaev, accusing him of breaking his promises, and threatens to bring him down.