The visit of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the issue of the infamous Mercedes that was used to topple Nikola Gruevsk’s Government surface again. The luxury vehicle was wheeled out again and used to transport the high dignitary, who came to Macedonia to urge the country to accept the Bulgarian demands and change its Constitution.

The vehicle was the focus of criminal charges filed by the now disgraced Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva. Gruevski, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska and one of her assistants Gjoko Popovski were charged over the purchase. The money were not embezzled and the prosecution did not prove that some kind of a cut was given to the officials by the provider of the vehicle. Instead, Gruevski and the others were charged with trying to receive material gain from the purchase – in that sometimes Gruevski would also use the car and would enjoy its luxurious features.

Gruevski mocked the ridiculously constructed case, but the politically driven prosecution persisted, and it was the first charge over which he was sentenced. SDSM propagandists saw an opportunity to attack Gruevski as a vain person, and even though no real crime was proven, the party insisted that it will sell the car and use the proceeds to purchase ambulances. After SDSM grabbed power, they neglected the Mercedes, and then had the press gather in the Government garage to show them a dirty and scratched vehicle. Needless to say, in a country that suffered one assassination attempt on a President, who luckily survived in a lightly armored vehicle, the sale was out of the question, and the Mercedes is still used to transport top visiting dignitaries. Gruevski received political asylum in Budapest, but Popovski and Jankulovska got lengthy prison sentences. Popovski remains in prison, and has served 5 of the 6.5 years sentence. Jankuloska was only recently released, after serving three years in strict detention.

Recently even President Stevo Pendarovski acknowledged that the case is ludicrous. “Gruevski is accused that he had material gain for himself, that he harmed the state budget. How is the budget harmed, if a vehicle is bought for security reasons and is in use to this day? We are accusing Gruevski, Jankuloska, but at the same time we are waiting for Ursula von der Leyen and she will be driven in the same Mercedes”, Pendarovski said. But even though he has criticized this and other politically driven cases of the Colored Revolution campaign that he supported, Pendarovski has not used his power to grant amnesty to the wrongly convicted former officials.