Decision has been made: Former Macedonian PM Gruevski granted asylum in Hungary

Hungary’s authorities have granted former Macedonian PM Nikola Gruevski refugee status, daily Magyar Idők reported online on Tuesday.

The immigration office has not confirmed the report, saying that information could only be shared with those involved in the process or with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Magyar Idők said on its website.

“Today, the Republic of Hungary, an EU and NATO member state, responded positively to my previously submitted request for political asylum due to political persecution in the Republic of Macedonia,” Gruevski wrote on his Facebook page.

Gruevski said he had explained to the authorities that he was seeking protection because of political persecution by Macedonia’s new social democratic government.

He said he gave the authorities a detailed account of his persecution in Macedonia. Gruevski said it began with the publication of illegally obtained audio recordings. This, he said, was followed by the appointment of a special public prosecutor, who he said “became a partisan tool” of the ruling SDSM party. He said he had described to the authorities “all the injustices, irregularities, discrimination, show trials and sentences, the specific court proceedings” against him, as well as the “torture” he and his associates had to endure after the formation of the new government.

Gruevski said he had also explained how Macedonia lacks the conditions for due process and how “in the atmosphere of political persecution” the government had failed to protect him “from the numerous threats” that were directed at him.

“In Macedonia, I faced judges who were waiting for instructions on the verdict they had to deliver from the government or the special public prosecutor,” he wrote.

Gruevski said the Macedonian government was using the courts to suppress political dissent and to conceal its own failings.

Gruevski said Macedonians today were being oppressed and persecuted by their government. Political arrests have become commonplace and the government has taken control of the courts and the prosecutor’s office, he added.

“I decided to oppose all this, and to take the issue to a higher level,” the former PM wrote. “One can like me or dislike me, agree or disagree with me, think that I pursue good or bad policies, but what is happening in Macedonia right now cannot be denied or ignored.”