Macedonia opposition chief joins angry TV duel

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Macedonia's politial crisis took a new twist on Wednesday after a pro-government TV interviewer accused the head of the opposition Social Democrats of lying - and predicted he would end up in jail.

In a tense interview marked by constant accusations and interruptions Social Democrat leader Zoran Zaev said he was determined to beat Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski in free and fair elections. Zaev said he had handed over a million wiretapped conversations of government officials to therecently formed Special Prosecution which has been tasked with investigating allegations of high-level crime. "Everything that was linked to breaking the law and crime has been published" Zaev said adding that it was now up to the Special Prosecution toinvestigate criminal allegations. However the TV interview host Dragan Pavlovic who was himself implicated in the wiretaps that the opposition released accused Zaev of obtaining "criminally acquired material" and of committing another crime by publishing wiretaps that "intrude into people's privacy".

At the same time Pavlovic showed records of phone conversations from Zaev that are part of an official investigation saying he received those from "concerned citizens". "You will end up in jail" Pavlovic told Zaev during the hour-long discussion that contained many similar remarks and saw him repeatedly interrupt Zaev. "I believe justice will be done for this political corruption and for this crime done against our own people. You are a criminal gang" Zaev responded.

Social media were awash with thousands of comments of shock and disbelief over the aggressive behaviour and unusual language used by the TV interviewer who at some point called Zaev a "freak".

The US ambassador Jess Baily tweeted: "Fair and Balanced? Please. Macedonian media can do so much better than that." EU ambassador Aivo Orav tweeted a similar remark: "Balanced media reporting???" The interview comes against a backdrop of deep crisis in Macedonia revolving around opposition claims that Prime Minister Gruevski ordered the illegal surveillance of some 20000 people including his own ministers. The Social Democrats started releasing batches of covertly recorded tapes last February. The opposition insists the tapes contain incriminating evidence against many senior officials including proof of high-level corruption the government grip’s on the judiciary prosecution businesses and media politically-motivated arrests and jailings electoral violations and even an attempted cover-up of a murder of a man by a police officer. Gruevski who has held power since 2006 and stepped down last month underan EU-brokered agreement says the tapes were “fabricated” by unnamed foreign intelligence services and given to the opposition to destabilise the country. The interviewer also offended ethnic Turkish organizations and parties in Macedonia when he accused Zaev of "Lying like a Turk". Pavlovic apologized for the use of words later in the evening saying that it had been a gaffe.