The former Macedonian prime minister asks asylum to the Hungarian ally

"I am in Budapest and I asked for political asylum from the Hungarian authorities." While the Macedonian police had been looking for him in vain for three days, former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, found guilty of corruption, went to the country of his political party. ally Viktor Orbán.

This 48-year-old nationalist politician, who led the 2.1 million inhabitants of the Balkan country from 2006 to 2016, wrote on Facebook that he was threatened in Macedonia. The Macedonian authorities consider him a fugitive criminal: Gruevski had to appear at the end of last week to start serving a two-year sentence of imprisonment.

In October, the former prime minister was sentenced on appeal for procurement fraud with the purchase of a luxury limousine-proof bullet. 39, worth 600,000 euros in 2012. This was the first in a series of cases in which prosecutors had claimed a total of 27 years in prison against Gruevski. .

Other charges include involvement in electoral fraud, abuse of power by demolishing the building of his political opponent, violation of public procurement rules during the construction of highways and instructions to defeat the mayor. 'an opposition party

In 2016, Gruevski had to resign as a result of a scandal concerning the illegal eavesdropping of countless politicians, journalists and citizens. He remained an influential figure of his party, VMRO-DPMNE, who was discredited after the mob that stormed the parliament in April 2017. Five MPs and a former VMRO-DPMNE minister are at risk. attend the assault, in which left-wing and Albanian representatives, including the current Social Democrat Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, were bombarded to death.

Gruevski has excellent relations with Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán. His party Fidesz and Gruevski's VMRO, like the CDA, belong to the European People's Party (EPP). The Hungarian prime minister was up to now one of the most loyal allies of Gruevski. In September 2017, long after the discredit of Gruevski, Orbán had campaigned with the former prime minister in local elections in Macedonia. He called the reign of Gruevski for "a success story". The fact that the former directors of the Hungarian state broadcaster, a spokesman for the Hungarian government, have recently invested in Macedonian media pro-VMRO has allowed to oppose speculation about closer links between the nationalists in Budapest and Skopje.

The men are that during the migration crisis of 2015, they acted together as supporters of the arrest of asylum seekers at the borders. The fact that Gruevski now proposes to be a refugee in Hungary is an ironic turning point. Under the extremely strict rules on asylum in Hungary, he has to go through his asylum procedure in a closed transit area at the border. In addition, the granting of asylum to a convicted criminal from a country that the Hungarian authorities consider safe would constitute the burden of the Hungarian opposition.