Zoran Zaev initiated his promised purge within the ranks of the ruling SDSM party and he targetted the party’s two main regional wings besides his own loyalists – worst hit were the party branches in Skopje and surprisingly, in Kumanovo. The purge was initiated following the badly disappointing result in the presidential elections, and Zaev seems set to use it in order to cement his hold of the party.
Aleksandar Kiracovski is out as Secretary General. He was involved in a series of cases of nepotism, hiring his own family relatives to well paid public sector positions, but also encouraging this practice across all levels of the administration. He is being replaced with Agriculture Minister Ljupco Nikolovski, who is seen as exceptionally close and loyal yo Zaev.
All deputy leaders of the party were also dismissed, as was the head of the party’s women’s wing. The powerful organization secretary, former intelligence officer Mile Zecevik also resigned, as did the international secretary Jovan Despotovski. Despotovski adds to the list of people close to Zaev’s most powerful deputy, Radmila Sekerinska, who are losing their positions – in his case after one of the first and biggest corruption scandals in the party involving the Innovations Fund he runs.
Sekerinska’s wing in the party, centered around officials from the capital Skopje, was the expected target of Zaev’s purge. But, less expectedly, Zaev also moved against officials from SDSM’s Kumanovo branch, led by Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski, who was seen as largely loyal to the Prime Minister. This prompted angry party members to ask why there are no demands for accountability from Zaev himself.
Zaev is trying to remove the responsibility from himself, he wants to shift the entire blame to all other groups, except his own people. We heard criticism about nepotism, public procurement fraud, crime… And now everybody is to blame but himself and his closest associates. The responsibility begins with the leader of the party, and not from its end. He is removing Sekerinska’s people from the leadership, as she is the main obstacle to him concentrating even more power, SDSM officials discussed this evening.
The party is expected to hold another meeting of its Central Committee on June 9th or June 16th, when it should elect new Vice-Presidents, but also vote on whether Zaev and Sekerinska should remain as the first two people of the party.
Additional changes should continue to percolate, and affect the seats in the Government, with ministers and their deputies expected to be on the chopping block. The future course of the purge will reveal whether Zaev is set on concentrating his power in the party and to what extent will he try to remove Sekerinska’s people from the Government.
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