In a TV interview, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev again accused the leaders of Serbia and Hungary Aleksandar Vucic and Viktor Orban in helping former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski leave the country. This time, Zaev also accused current VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski.

Asked how was it possible that the Interior Ministry was unable to keep tabs on the most sought after and vilified person in the country, and if there is some kind of a secret deal with Gruevski to let him escape, Zaev said that Gruevski was Prime Minister for a long time and may have had help from both inside and outside the country.

Zaev quickly blamed Mickoski that he used his previous meetings with Vucic and Orban to allow Gruevski to escape. Zaev, who also met both Orban and Vucic shortly before the escape, said that he can’t disclose further information about the investigation.

Hungary approved the political asylum request Gruevski submitted, given the ample evidence that the judiciary was abused to get him in prison. Serbia, on the other hand, said that the Macedonian authorities were inexplicably slow in issuing an arrest warrant, and that its border officers could not detain Gruevski when he entered into Hungary, after previously crossing Albania and Montenegro.

Zaev said that Macedonia will demand his extradition from Hungary, but at the same time:

we will try not to violate our friendship with Hungary, given that we need Hungary to vote for our NATO accession protocol.