Does Artan Grubi run the government in Macedonia?

Does Artan Grubi, the powerful “First Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Political System and Relations Between Communities” (sic) run Macedonia? By the way, what “Political System” is he Minister of? Aside from the old adage, the longer the title the less important the job, one could be forgiven for asking “what country?” when looking at Grubi’s Twitter profile — while the circular profile picture is of Grubi, the rectangular background photo is of Grubi in front of a logo of his party, DUI, on a blue pipe and drape with — get this — the flag of the United States of America on the left and the flag of the Republic of Albania on his right. He adds his rather long and grandiose title, his location is listed as “Shkup” (Skopje), and the party website. Not a picture of the Macedonian flag, not a mention of the Macedonian government, nothing. I suppose he wants it that way — after all, he is pro-Albanian, first, and last. No other ethnicities need apply.

Speaking of applying, it appears that Mr. Grubi made the decision to fire Stojko Paunovski, the head of the DPI Product Safety Bureau. Paunovski, a “personal friend” of Zoran Zaev according to various media outlets and Zaev himself, was told by Zaev — or perhaps it was Grubi — to hire 33 ethnic Albanians — so-called “diversity hires” according to one source — for his bureau. He refused to do so stating that they were either unqualified or unneeded. For stating the truth and refusing the orders of Zaev/Grubi, he was fired despite the fact that 90 percent of all employees in his bureau signed a petition asking that he be retained.

For his part, Zaev said “I will not allow that laws are violated even though Paunovski is my friend,” meaning that Paunovski violated “the law” that Zaev or Grubi ordered Paunovski to hire these ethnic Albanians.

And for his part, Paunovski said he was removed not because of Zaev, but because of Grubi, stating “This decision was expected for me, and in the spirit of the coming Easter holidays I can only say, forgive them, they know not what they are doing. There was no conflict between me and the Prime Minister. If there was any conflict, it was with the head of office of Deputy Prime Minister Grubi,” according to one media outlet. Interestingly, those who know Scripture, and in particular the New Testament, will recognize the phrase “I…forgive them, they know not what they are doing.”

So, who runs the show? The fact that individuals in the government are telling various government heads to hire unqualified and unneeded people is not news — this is a hard habit to break in a former Communist country (it happens in stable and long-lived democracies as well, but it is harder to find). And it is a habit that needs to be broken if the government (any government) wants to actually see the country and the people not just survive, but thrive. (Though to be fair to Macedonia, it was the US State Department together with the EU foreign policy mavens and even NATO who insisted, in the Ohrid Framework Agreement, that the public sector hire more minorities for the sake of them being minorities.)

So, setting aside that fact, and using Paunovski’s own admission, it would appear that, at least as hiring decisions are concerned, it is Grubi that runs the government of Macedonia, though one could also conclude that perhaps other, more important decisions, are made by Grubi and his boss, Ali Ahmeti. And one could then conclude that perhaps those decisions, revolving around more important issues like the census, citizenship, foreign policy, etc., are driven entirely by ethnic considerations, in this case, in favor of ethnic Albanians to the exclusion of all other ethnicities, whether they are Macedonian, Turk, Vlach, Roma, Serb or anything else. It would be yet one more example of Zoran Zaev doing whatever he is told to do by others in order to remain in power.

Artan Grubi is a former (perhaps current) football hooligan, plucked from relative obscurity and cleaned up with a bit of make-up and clothing, and then given a far-too powerful position in the Macedonian government. By his actions, he demonstrates that he is immature, willing to threaten anyone to get his way, and not someone who should be anywhere near power.

The sooner he is gone, the sooner the Zaev/Ahmeti government is gone, the better for Macedonia, and the region.