Former North Macedonian PM who fled to Hungary started a company in Pécel

So far, he has been advising Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. He fled to Hungary from Macedonia (now North Macedonia) because of a prison sentence for corruption and asked for political asylum in the fall of 2018, which he received shortly after. The former PM could even vote in the local elections of 2019.

According to 24.hu, opposition MPs tried to get information about why Hungary granted asylum for Mr Gruevski. However, they received an answer saying that he advises Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó in Western Balkans issues. However, now,

the former Macedonian PM started a company in Pécel, Pest County.

The authorities registered I.C.I.C. Ltd. on July 15, and the owner and CEO are Gruevski. The company’s main activity is business consulting. In addition, there are several other categories on the list, such as organising conferences, asset management, or glass, detergent, and porcelain wholesale trade. Based on the information of 24.hu, even though Gruevski lives in Hungary,

he gave a Skopje address as the residence.

Gruevski graduated as an economist and worked at Balkanska Banka at the beginning of his career. Moreover, he was the first one who did a stock exchange transaction in Macedonia. Later, he was the finance minister between 1999 and 2002. He introduced VAT in his country and accelerated privatisation. That was when Matáv (today: Magyar Telekom) got hold of MakTel, the Macedonian telecommunications service provider.

Former Macedonian PM Gruevski’s media financed from Hungary?

He bought a Mercedes for HUF 200 million then, for which the local court gave him a 2-year-long prison sentence. He bought the armoured vehicle from public money, influenced the seller’s selection, and was charged with corruption.

However, the main reason behind his fall was that

he wiretapped every 100th citizen during his time in power.

When the scandal broke, 20 thousand people went out to the streets to protest, and Zoran Zaev formed a socialist government in 2017.

In 2020, he received a further 1.5 years in prison for inciting violence in a 2013 demonstration in Skopje. In 2018, he fled from North Macedonia and received political asylum in Budapest. As we reported before, the Hungarian authorities did not extradite him.