MANCHO MITEVSKI ОБРЕЖАН ФОРМАТ: 140Х200MM | МАТ ЛАМИНАЦИЈА 1/0 ЛАМИНАЦИЈА 140Х200MM | МАТ ОБРЕЖАН ФОРМАТ: CAPTURED STATE UNDERSTANDING THE MACEDONIAN CASE Mancho Mitevski CAPTURED STATE UNDERSTANDING THE MACEDONIAN CASE Published by: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Skopje Office www.fes-skopje.org Author: Mancho Mitevski Translated by: Tanja Maleska Cover design: Aleksandar Mitevski Designed and printed by: Kontura Print: 200 copies A commercial use of the media published by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung is not allowed without written approval by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. The views expressed in this report are those from the author and do not necessarily represent opinions of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation. CIP - Каталогизација во публикација Национална и универзитетска библиотека "Св. Климент Охридски", Скопје 321.64(497.7)"2006/2016" 304.4(497.7)"2006/2016" MITEVSKI, Mancho Captured state : Understanding the Macedonian case / Mancho Mitevski. - Skopje : Friedrich Ebert Stiftung - Office Macedonia, 2018. - 331 стр. ; 25 см Biography: стр. 331 ISBN 978-9989-109-90-4 а) Македонија - Авторитарни политички системи - 2006-2016 б) Македонија - Општествено-политички прилики - 2006-2016 COBISS.MK-ID 109272842 CAPTURED STATE UNDERSTANDING THE MACEDONIAN CASE CONTENTS PREFACE 9 NOTE TO THE PUBLICATION OF “THE CAPTURE STATE” IN ENGLISH 11 FOREWORD 13 I. INTRODUCTION 25 A Return to the Logic of the Cold War 26 Macron’s Victory Put a Stop to the Retrograde Process 29 Putin is Rushing to Make Russia a Factor Again 32 Instead of a Fight against Establishments – a Swap of Establishments 34 Can Trump be the Undertaker of Anti-Globalists Trends? 37 Migrations of the Young People – For a Change of the Geography 42 A Captured State is Only Possible with an Authoritarian Regime and Absolute Power 47 II. AN ENDLESS TRANSITION 55 The Tradition as the “Teshkoto” – One Step Forward, Two Steps Back 56 The Entire Transition with Symptoms of the Captured State 60 III SYSTEM OF GOVERNING 63 “THE MACEDONIAN BERMUDA TRIANGLE” 65 “THE CONTROVERSAL MACEDONIAN TRIANGLE” 67 THE “FIVE Ps” FORMULA FOR A PEACEFUL AND EXTENDED RULE 71 Populism – or the People are Always Right 72 Propaganda – for Lies, Downplaying and Brainwashing 82 Money – a Little for the Others, and Most for One’s Self 91 The Police Baton of the System of Governing – MVRO-VMRO 98 “Swarovski” Judiciary – the Defense Bastion of Crime 103 THE PYRAMIDS OF THE SYSTEM AND THE CHARACTER OF THE GOVERNMENT 111 The Pyramid of Power 112 The Pyramid of Wealth 118 The Pyramid of Antiquization 119 IV CAPTURED STATE 123 WHO WAS THE FIRST TO SAY “CAPTURED STATE” 126 HOW TO CAPTURE A STATE 127 Unity in the Place of Separation of Powers 131 Divisions – Divide and Conquer 137 Poverty and Misery of the Spirit – On Clientelism 146 The Fears of the Citizens and the Fears of the Government 152 WHY A STATE IS CAPTURED 157 TO WHAT EXTENT CAN A STATE BE CAPTURED 158 WHAT ALL WAS CAPTURED IN THE MACEDONIAN STATE 160 The Personnel Policies in MOI and the Secret Police 161 Institutions – Barracks for the Party Army 165 Nothing in the Country was Left Uncaptured 168 The Highest Level of Capture – the Capture of the Mind 172 THE CAPTURED STATE CAN BE LIBERATED WITH CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT 175 A Long Captivity – a Long and Difficult Liberation 177 IT TOOK TWO PARTIES TO CAPTURE MACEDONIA 181 VMRO-DPMNE – DUI, a Marriage of Convenience, without Love and Respect 182 Why DUI was scoring own goals for VMRO-DPMNE 186 THE FOREIGNERS – SCHADENFREUDE WITTNESSES OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE STATE 190 The Parallel-Slalom of VMRO-DPMNE with the international community 192 Five Events that Woke up the International Community 195 A CAPTURED STATE LOOKS LIKE “POTEMKIN’S STATE” 197 HOW THE LIBERATION OF THE CAPTURED STATE BEGAN 201 When the System’s Masks Came Off – the Balaclavas Came On 202 “Bloody Thursday” – the Peak of Politically Organized Crime 206 V THE GENESIS OF POLITICALLY ORGANIZED CRIME 211 Organized Crime – a Symptom of a Severe Illness of the State 213 Macedonia had a Malignant Mutation of the Institutions 216 THE AXIS OF POLITICALLY ORGANIZED CRIME 218 The Capturing of the State and Politically Organized Crime – a Joint Venture 219 The Connective Tissue of Politically Organized Crime is the Government 222 The Party and the Institutions Managed by a Single Criminal Association 224 THE TRANSITION - A PARADISE FOR POLITICALLY ORGANIZED CRIME 226 Crime was Blooming—and No One was Held to Account 227 Macedonia—the Crossroads of International Organized Crime 229 THE FOREIGNERS WERE LATE TO PUT ON THEIR DIPLOMATIC GLOVES 232 Officials—Kleptocrats Using States for Profits 232 UBK (Office of Security and Counter Intelligence) Worked Outside of its Legal Mandate to Favor the Government 234 Politically Organized Crime “Hand in Hand” with the Captured State 236 VI ELECTORAL ENGINEERING 239 EARLY ELECTIONS – THE FORMULA FOR CONTINUED GOVERNING 240 TEN YEARS - TEN ELECTORAL VICTORIES IN A ROW 245 Electoral Corruption 248 Electoral Crime 250 VII WIRETAPPING 259 Creating “Putsch” to Intercept and Prevent “Wiretapping” 261 The System Caught Itself in the Wiretapping Net 267 VII A WIDE ASSORTMENT OF ORGANIZED CRIME 271 Great Violence to Protect the Highest Priorities of the Government 275 Retaliations against Opponents - Manifestations of Personal Frustrations 280 Procurement—the Perfect Legally Permissible Crime 283 Party Financing - “Legal” Money Laundering 288 Redistribution of Social Wealth for One’s Self and One’s Own 291 Laws and Rules of Procedure of the Assembly – At the Order and to the Measure of the Government 294 Conflict of Interest and Nepotism - a Normal Phenomenon 298 IX A SPECIAL TYPE OF CRIME - POLITICALLY ORGANIZED CRIME 301 X THE THREE KEY ACTORS THAT BROUGHT DOWN THE REGIME 307 AFTERWORD 315 D-r Svetomir Shkarikj 315 D-r Besa Arifi 323 D-r Ana Chupeska Stanishkovska 327 BIOGRAPHY 331 Captured State 9 PREFACE Since May 2017, Macedonia has quickly developed into a symbol for the possibility of change in the Western Balkans. By reaching out to improve the relations with the neighbors and starting much needed reform programs, Zoran Zaevs Government has put the country back on the European track. However, it is important to remember that not long ago, the country went through a state crisis of enormous proportion that grew slowly over more than ten years: Corruption stemming from the highest offices and trickling down to every -in stitution and every corner of the country as well as a wire-tapping scandal of immense scale, to name just some dimensions, contributed to the perfected state capture of Nikola Gruevskis governing period, that found an alarming peak in the violent attack on the Macedonian parliament on April 27th, 2017. While today we can see hope for a more open society, a revitalized dem- ocratic understanding of institutions and political office, a stronger economy and thus a future perspective for the Macedonian people, it is important to remember that the dark past was not long ago. This destructive period has only just begun to be addressed both publicly and behind closed doors. With court cases numerous corruption cases as well as about the events of 27th of April, the past entanglements are slowly being openly addressed and criminals are being held accountable. This is a crucial development towards reestablishing faith in democracy and rule of law. But a debate in civil society is needed as well as to how Macedonia could get to this point: It is only is only through understanding how a state capture of this massive scale was possible and ana- lyzing how and why an entire political class could become entangled in corrup- tion, that a society can prevent this from happening again. Mancho Mitevski has revisited the period of 2006 to 2016 and the years leading up to it in his book Captured State. In recollecting how Gruevski and his people came to power and how they learned to abuse it for their own per- sonal advantage, Mitevski aims to find answers to some of the most pressing questions of post-Gruevski Macedonia: How could the massive state capture in Macedonia happen? What structures and developments both within Macedo- nia as well as internationally helped the regime and their methods. Were there 10 Mancho Mitevski early warnings? By addressing these questions the author not only provides important background information to the more public and known facts about Gruevski’s state capture. He also uses international cross-references to point out the connecting dots between any populist nationalism and their hypocrit- ical claim to protect national interests. The book was first published in Mace- donian language in early 2018 and by translating it into English it is our goal to open up the dialogue this publication started about political corruption and conditions for state capture to a wider audience. We believe this publication can also provide valuable insights for other countries, particularly in the region, to detect similar mechanisms and to pre- vent them from spiraling out of control the way they did in Macedonia. Eva Ellereit, Country Director of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Skopje Office Nita Starova, Programme Coordinator of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Skopje Office Captured State 11 NOTE TO THE PUBLICATION OF “THE CAPTURE STATE” IN ENGLISH Owing to the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the Study “The Capture State” now has its own window to the world and an opportunity, through the “Macedonian story”, to enable more readers to see what is a real, and not just a theoretical – capture state. Although the Macedonian edition of the book happened exactly one year ago, I think that there is nothing to add to the English edition, nor to take away, except to share a few brief explanations. Following the “Bloody Thursday” (April 27, 2017) with the constitution of the new government and the fall of the authoritarian system of governance, the state was formally liberated.