Nikola Gruevski

Sixth prime minister of North Macedonia

Nikola Gruevski (, pronounced ; born 31 August 1970) is a former Macedonian politician who served as Prime Minister of Macedonia from 2006 until his resignation, which was caused by the 2016 Macedonian protests, and led the VMRO DPMNE party from 2004 to 2017. Under the Pržino Agreement mediated by the European Union, Gruevski agreed to resign and left his post on 18 January 2016. In May 2018 he was sentenced to two years in prison on corruption charges. He has opposed treaties with Bulgaria in 2017 and the Prespa agreement signed with Greece in 2018. In April 2022, he was added to the US Treasury's Specially Designated Nationals List of individuals facing Balkans related sanctions and the US Department of State's corruption related sanctions. Also in April, he was sentenced in Skopje to 7 years in prison on charges of money laundering and illegal acquisition and concealment of state property.

The government under Ljubčo Georgievski sold the Macedonian Telecom to Hungarian Matáv and the OKTA oil refinery to Hellenic Petroleum. Gruevski also implemented financial reforms, including the reform of the payment system and the value added tax of 18%, requiring fiscal receipts for all Macedonian businesses, which was a program designed to fight tax evasion.

Gruevski is the leader of the nationalist ruling party VMRO DPMNE. After VMRO DPMNE was defeated in the 2002 parliamentary election, there was a period of infighting within the party. Gruevski emerged as the pro EU leader, and he was elected as leader of the party after Ljubčo Georgievski left the position. Ljubčo Georgievski after he left VMRO DPMNE he set up his own party (VMRO People's Party), but VMRO DPMNE retained most of the party's supporters.

The VMRO DPMNE won the July 2006 parliamentary election, and on 25 August 2006 he constituted the new government. His government had many new faces, mostly in their 30s, in key ministries and other positions. In the election Gruevski earned the distinction of becoming the first elected European head of government born in the 1970s. In June 2007, Gruevski attended a meeting in Tirana, Albania, along with President of the United States George W. Bush, Prime Minister of Albania Sali Berisha, and Prime Minister of Croatia Ivo Sanader. The coalition led by his party, VMRO DPMNE, won the 1 June 2008 parliamentary election, their second electoral victory in a row, winning more than half of the seats in the parliament. The polling was marred by a number of violent incidents and allegations of fraud in some ethnic Albanian dominated municipalities. Gruevski created a government with the ethnic Albanian political party Democratic Union for Integration. The coalition led by his party, VMRO DPMNE, won the 5 June 2011 parliamentary election, their third electoral victory in a row, winning 56 out of the 123 seats in the parliament. Objections of misuse of state resources, including the blackmail of over one hundred thousand public servants to act as agitators were neglected, and the elections were declared valid. Gruevski formed the new government, again in coalition with the Democratic Union for Integration. On 6 January 2012, Gruevski opened the triumphal arch "Porta Macedonia" in Skopje as a monument to 20th anniversary of Macedonian independence, and admitted that he personally has been the instigator of the Skopje 2014 project. On 27 April 2014, VMRO DPMNE won the parliamentary election, providing Gruevski another term as prime minister. In 2014, Gruevski began to rush plans through Parliament to create a tax free autonomous trade zone that falls outside the purview of both domestic and international regulators. The move raised alarm among Parliament members. The European Union's Venice Commission commented that "If all laws (other than criminal laws) are to be enacted and enforced by a managing body rather than the constitutionally recognised lawmaker and executive, this zone becomes a sort of a 'State within a State' separate from the existing constitutional structure" and could become "a haven for 'dirty money.'" In 2015 the former prime minister and founder of the VMRO DPMNE, Ljubčo Georgievski accused Gruevski's government it had a goal to serbianise the country, finally joining it to Serbia.

In May 2015, protests occurred in Skopje against Gruevski and his government. The demonstrations began following charges being brought against Zoran Zaev, the opposition leader, who responded by alleging that Gruevski had had 20,000 Macedonian officials and other figures wiretapped, and had covered up the murder of a young man by a police officer in 2011. A major protest occurred on 5 May, with violent clashes between activists and police, causing injuries on both sides. In the days following, the opposition claimed that more anti government actions would occur, which they did later that month. Several ministers, including the interior minister, resigned. Gruevski initially refused to step down, saying on 16 May that "if I back down it would be a cowardly move I’ll face down the attacks." However, on 15 January 2016, Emil Dimitriev was nominated as prime minister and he assumed office on 18 January, following the arranged pre electoral resignation of Gruevski from the position, as part of the Przino Agreement.

In July 2017, a Macedonian court ordered the seizure of the passports of Gruevski and four other officials of his party, including former interior minister Gordana Jankuloska and former transportation minister Mile Janakieski, in connection with the wiretapping case. In December 2017, Gruevski resigned as leader of the VMRO DPMNE, following the party's major defeat by the Social Democratic Union in local elections.

In January 2017 the Macedonian Special Prosecutor's Office launched the 'Tank' investigation in which two individuals were accused of using their official position and authority in the period from February to October 2012 to complete an illegal public procurement of an armoured Mercedes Benz car worth €600,000 and "fulfil the wishes" of Gruevski who was prime minister at the time. On 23 May 2018, Gruevski was sentenced to two years in prison for unlawfully influencing government officials in the purchase of the luxury bulletproof car. On 9 November 2018, the Skopje Criminal Court rejected Gruevski's appeals for a postponement of his prison sentence and on 10 November he did not appear for the start of his two year sentence. He had been last seen in Macedonia on 8 November at a hotel in Skopje. The Macedonian authorities issued an arrest warrant against the fugitive. VMRO DPMNE's leader, Hristijan Mickoski defended Gruevski and described the arrest warrant and police search against him as "political persecution" and a "witch hunt", adding that VMRO DPMNE was "under police siege".

On 13 November, Gruevski announced through his Facebook account that he had fled to Hungary, where he applied for political asylum. Gruevski was seen as having particularly close relations with the right wing national conservative Fidesz's head, and Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, who opposed the Prespa agreement between Greece and Macedonia and supported VMRO DPMNE's hardline position against it. Orbán has reportedly described Gruevski's escape as "an interesting story, exciting, like all crime stories". However, according to Bulgarian authorities, Gruevski has never applied for Bulgarian citizenship. It was later confirmed by Albanian police that, with the aid of the Hungarian government which escorted him using Hungarian diplomatic vehicles, Gruevski had passed through Albania, Montenegro and Serbia before arriving in Hungary. Interpol alerted that Gruevski is wanted under an international arrest warrant and the Macedonian government filed a formal extradition request. On 20 November 2018, Gruevski was granted political asylum by the Hungarian authorities. Gruevski has condemned the Prespa agreement and stated that Prime Minister Zoran Zaev "scammed" and "tricked" the Macedonian people over the name change of the country and that Greek politicians imposed an unfavourable deal upon Macedonia that outlines exclusive claims over "antique history" by Greece. On 27 June 2019, Gruevski appeared handcuffed in a court in Budapest on a hearing closed for the public for his extradition requested by North Macedonia. Later that day the court in Budapest announced that his extradition was rejected. According to judge Éva Várhegyi the conditions needed for his extradition were not fulfilled. On 21 July 2020, Gruevski's position as an honorary president of VMRO DPNME was taken away, along with other changes that were made to democratize the party. Furthermore, in October 2020, Gruevski was named in a new money laundering probe launched by the authorities in North Macedonia.

On 19 March 2021, German politician Tobias Zech resigned from the Bundestag due to allegations that he received a large sum of money to campaign for former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski. After Gruevski escaped to Hungary, Zech continued business relations with North Macedonia through cannabis related company PharmCann Deutschland AG in partnership with Zlatko Keskovski, a former counter intelligence officer of North Macedonia.