“Nikola Gruevski is the one who managed to reduce Macedonia to a captured state under his reign, as per the report of the European Commission back in 2016,” FM Nikola Dimitrov said in a statement on Wednesday on the latest developments related to the former PM. The FM pointed to the content of the wire-tapped materials. “All of us here, but also in Europe, heard the phone conversations indicating massive abuse of office, electoral fraud, and corruption that were published in 2015. The idea that a strongman with such legacy, now a convicted felon facing many other trials, will seek refuge from the rule of law in a candidate country to an EU member state is impossible to digest. Not to forget that as a former PM, he also enjoyed police protection composed of officers of his choice, making his allegations related to his personal safety completely false,” Dimitrov stated.