IT may be a tiny country of just 2.1 million people but Macedonia is being rocked by a scandal of epic proportions.

A murder cover-up as well as phone tapping on a massive scale have all been linked to the conservative government which is becoming increasingly authoritarian. The phone tapping records allegedly show government corruption, the mismanagement of funds and unsound criminal prosecutions of opponents.

While Macedonia has been hitting the headlines for closing its doors to refugees, within its borders protests have been mounted against the government, forcing the postponement of the general election scheduled for June.

Both sides of the divide have claimed the other is being manipulated by foreign powers, namely the West and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The furore is threatening the country’s aspirations to join Nato and the EU, and leaders from the US and EU leaders are calling for President Gjorge Ivanov to carry out reforms and reconvene the abandoned investigation into the phone tapping scandal.

“The door of Nato is still open, but it is crucial that the country’s leaders address problems on the rule of law,” said Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

“Exchange the president for 10,000 refugees,” read one placard in protests against the government last month after the president announced he had halted the phone tapping investigation and pardoned more than 50 people implicated in the scandal, including his ally, the former prime minister.


HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

THE crisis in the country flared last year when the leader of the main opposition, Zoran Zaev, alleged that then prime minister Nikola Gruevski (pictured, right) was involved in the phone tapping of 20,000 people including journalists, religious leaders and politicians.

Zaev said the government was riddled with corruption and had even covered up the murder of a young man by security forces during the 2011 elections. In turn, the president accused Zaev of plotting to destabilise the country. Charges were filed against him alleging he was spying.

Tens of thousands of Zaev’s supporters took to the streets in anger and there was widespread unrest in May last year. Several ministers including interior minister Gordana Jankuloska and intelligence chief Saso Mijalkov stepped down during the protests but the prime minister refused to go.

“If I back down it would be a cowardly move. I’ll face down the attacks,” he said. He finally resigned early this year but the probe into Gruevski and other members of the ruling party was halted by the president in April who said he wanted to draw a line under the scandal and move on.

HAS THERE BEEN CORRUPTION?

TROUBLE had been brewing since the 2014 general election when Zaev (pictured, below) and his SDSM party refused to recognise the new government as legitimate, claiming it had abused the system to win.

A few months later the government said Zaev had been planning a coup with the backing of foreign powers.

Zaev responded by leaking the transcripts of the phone taps and, with the small nation at breaking point, the European Commission stepped in, anxious to broker peace in the crossroads of the Balkans.

Albert Musliu of human rights group, the Helsinki Committee said: “It sounds ridiculous that the political elite of a developed European country lacks the moral integrity so much that it needs an intervention from the EU and the US to solve its own problems. But unfortunately, it’s true.”

A report by the Commission uncovered the “apparent direct involvement of senior government and party officials in electoral fraud, corruption, abuse of power and authority, conflict of interest, blackmail, extortion, criminal damage,” and “unacceptable political interference in the nomination/appointment of judges.”

The prime minister responded by claiming that a foreign intelligence service, which he refused to name, had paid “a lot of money to some people who can make numerous wiretapped recordings” with the intention of “brutally destroying” his party and “introducing fear among the people.”

Jabir Deralla, of human rights organisation Civil, said: “The wiretapped conversations reveal crimes for which, in a normal country, he (Gruevski) and many members of his government would have been sent to prison for many years.”


WHAT CAUSED THE PROTESTS THIS YEAR?

INTERNATIONAL and domestic pressure finally saw the resignation of Gruevski in January but the ensuing uneasy peace was disrupted again in April when the president announced he was calling off the probe into the phone tapping and was pardoning 56 people implicated in the scandal, including his former prime minister.

Widespread protests followed with thousands of people taking to the streets calling for the president’s resignation.

Condemnation also came from the European Commission with enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn saying: “Today’s actions of President Ivanov are not in line with my understanding of rule of law.”

He added that it put Macedonia’s aspirations to join the EU even more at risk.

With opposition parties declaring they would boycott the June elections and under intense pressure both at home and abroad, the country’s constitutional court moved to postpone the vote.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini immediately called for the April pardons to be rescinded with the US echoing her demand.

WHY IS IT SUCH A CONTROVERSIAL COUNTRY?

BRINGING Macedonia and other Balkan states into the EU and Nato is seen by the West as the best hope of ensuring stability in a region marred by corruption, ethnic tensions and poverty.

Ivanov is the country’s fourth democratically elected president, taking power in 2009 after a career as a university law professor. His ally Gruevski remains Macedonia’s most influential figure, however.

Both have been accused of receiving support from the Russians who believe the West is deliberately stoking the crisis.

“The opposition, with outside help, is again used for stirring political conflict with the goal of disturbing the elections,” said a Russian foreign ministry statement.

The former Yugoslav Republic has been a candidate for membership of the EU for 11 years but accession negotiations have yet to begin.

While the country was free from the inter-ethnic violence that scarred other Balkan countries after the break-up of Yugoslavia, it came close to civil war ten years after independence in 1991.

In 2001 there was an uprising of ethnic Albanians but a peace deal brokered by Nato and the EU gave greater recognition of their rights.

The country’s name remains controversial as Greece fears that it implies territorial aspirations towards its northern region of Macedonia. At the United Nations the country is referred to as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM).