Prime Minister Zoran Zaev was last seen in the public on Wednesday evening, when he visited the site of the catastrophic Tetovo hospital fire that killed 15 people. Zaev refused to speak to the press or address the public on the even of the tragedy, and has remained silent ever since.

Healthcare Minister Venko Filipce was the only top Government official to hold a press conference on Thursday, during which he refused to offer his resignation.

Zaev’s decision to avoid the public is notable given his practice to call out the previous VMRO-DPMNE led Government and level outrageous allegations against it over a number of tragic, emotionally charged cases. Zaev whipped up violent protests after the police brutality murder of a young man which he falsely blamed on then Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska using partially presented and edited audio tapes given to him by insiders in the secret service. His party organized mobs who followed former Healthcare Minister Nikola Todorov shouting “murderer” at him after the death of a seriously ill young girl, which Zaev claimed could have been prevented. The girl’s grandfather was driven to the point to open fire on Todorov, narrowly missing him.

Without a shred of evidence, Zaev also claimed that Gruevski staged the bloody Albanian terrorist attack on the city of Kumanovo in 2015, that came at the height of Zaev’s destabilization campaign. He also claimed that he has evidence that would reveal a cover-up in the investigation into the 2011 Albanians Islamist massacre of five Macedonians near Skopje – when he eventually got the chance to testify before court, Zaev acknowledged that he has no additional evidence to offer.

In contrast, propagandists from Zaev’s SDSM party were vocal over the past few days shouting at social media users who would ask for accountability from Zaev and Filipce for the hospital fire – especially considering that Zaev awarded the contract to build the improvised hospital to a crony – his former Deputy Prime Minister Koco Angjusev. Zaev supporters insist that asking for accountability amounts to “vulture behavior” and that “a full investigation needs to take place before any blame is assigned”. This was definitely not the case when Zaev was the one who was assigning blame all around.