Nikola Gruevski

Personal life

Born in Skopje in 1970, Gruevski was brought up in a family that was neither privileged nor poor. His father worked in furniture and design and his mother was a nurse. After his parents’ divorce, he was raised by his mother. At the age of four, however, she went to work in Libya, like thousands of other Yugoslav citizens, and took him with her. After their return Gruevski completed primary and secondary education in Skopje. Having graduated from the Faculty of Economics at St. Clement of Ohrid University of Bitola in 1994 (where he dabbled in amateur theatre and boxing) he entered the nascent finance sector, and was the first person to trade on Skopje's stock exchange. In 1996 he also acquired qualifications for the international capital market from a London Securities Institute. On 12 December 2006, he obtained a master's degree from the Faculty of Economics at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. Gruevski founded the Brokerage Association of Macedonia in 1998 and made the first transaction on the Macedonian Stock Exchange.

Gruevski divorced his first wife and married again in May 2007 to Borkica Gruevska with whom he has two daughters: Anastasija and Sofija.

Gruevski's paternal grandparents stem from the Ottoman Macedonia village of Krushoradi, where his grandfather Nikola Grouios (1911–1940) was born. Until the official Greek annexation after the Second Balkan War in 1913, it was under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Exarchate. The Greek administration later led assimilative anti-Bulgarian campaign, changing the names of the local villagers to the corresponding Greek names. The village itself was renamed by the Greek authorities to Achlada in 1926. Gruevski's grandfather fought in the Greco-Italian War, where he lost his life. His name is mentioned on the war memorial in Achlada among the names of the locals who were killed during World War II. Years later, during the Greek Civil War, Gruevski's grandmother and father, fled north to what was then Yugoslav Macedonia, where they changed their family name to Gruevski in order to gain citizenship through assimilation, as was the Yugoslav policy at the time.

Minister of Finance (1999–2002)

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.

Party leader (2003–present)

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. The former prime minister set up his own party (VMRO-People's Party), but VMRO-DPMNE retained most of the party's supporters.

Prime Minister (2006–16)

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.

Wiretapping scandal

In May 2015, protests occurred in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, against the incumbent Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his government. Protests began following charges being brought up against Zoran Zaev, the opposition leader, who responded by alleging that Gruevski had 20,000 Macedonian officials and other figures wiretapped, and covered up the murder of a young man by a police officer in 2011. A major protest occurred on 5 May, seeing violent clashes between activists and police, with injuries on both sides. In the days afterward, the opposition claimed that more anti-government actions will occur, which they did later that month. Several ministers, including the interior minister, resigned during the protests. Gruevski himself 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 of Macedonia 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 Macedonian court has ordered that passports be seized from former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and four other officials in his conservative party, including two former cabinet ministers, in connection with a major wiretapping scandal.

Recognitions

Awards