While going easy on the suspected high profile racketeering ring related to the ruling SDSM party, police inspectors found the time to initiate criminal charges against a man who wrote an angry comment to one of Zoran Zaev’s social media posts.

A 51 year old man from Skopje will be charged with endangerment and spreading “racist and xenophobic materials over a computer” – the hate speech article of the Criminal Code. Zaev, who famously used terms such as “we have bombs” and “tick-tock” during his 2015 campaign to bring down the VMRO-DPMNE led Government using illegally procured wiretaps, said that he is shaken by the threat he received from this citizen during a recent appearance in the Parliament. As one of the top opposition leaders, Zaev was also recorded in 2011 threatening to “eat alive” his political opponents once he assumes power, a comment which is nwo seen as heralding the widespread persecution of opposition activists.

There is no evidence that the man who threatened Zaev had any actual resources or intention to act on the Facebook post. The Prime Minister receives more than a fair share of angry comments, mostly related to the imposed name change which was overwhelmingly rejected by the public and contributes to daily insults aimed at Macedonians from politicians and media outlets from neighboring countries.

Zaev is also announcing broad regulation against “fake news”, which many fear will be used by him to silence critical media outlets and popular Facebook pages.