He added that other European countries should likewise extradite any Hungarian political criminals who try to flee abroad, in the spirit of European cooperation.
Former North Macedonian prime minister Nikola Gruevski is an international criminal and should not be in Hungary, Hungarian politician Peter Magyar said after his Tisza party’s sweeping victory over Viktor Orban’s Fidesz, BGNES reported.
Magyar strongly criticized the Orban government’s decision to grant asylum to Polish politicians Zbigniew Ziobro and Marcin Romanowski, who are accused of abuse of office. He drew a direct parallel with the case of Gruevski, who also received protection in Hungary under Orban.
Magyar said Hungary must not become a refuge for international criminals and stressed that this applied not only to the Polish politicians, but also to Gruevski, whom he described as a convicted criminal. He added that other European countries should likewise extradite any Hungarian political criminals who try to flee abroad, in the spirit of European cooperation.
In the parliamentary elections on April 12, Orban’s Fidesz suffered a crushing defeat. In the new 199-seat parliament, Peter Magyar’s formation will hold 138 seats, Fidesz 55, and the pro-Russian Mi Hazank six.
Gruevski, who served as prime minister from August 2006 until mid-January 2016, was sentenced in September 2018 to two years in prison. Days before his arrest, on November 12, 2018, he fled North Macedonia illegally with the help of the Hungarian police, travelling through Albania, Montenegro and Serbia. Orban granted him asylum that same November under a fast-track procedure.
Gruevski and former president Gjorge Ivanov were key executors of the “antiquisation of Macedonia” project, which triggered the country’s international isolation and permanently blocked its Euro-Atlantic path. Gruevski personally designated the current prime minister in Skopje as his successor at the head of VMRO-DPMNE. | BGNES