In a guest appearance on the TV show “Interview Only” on 28.10.2021, candidate for Mayor of the City of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, confirmed that she had managed the sports hall “Rasadnik”, after she was asked a journalist question: “do you, or your family, have any connection with that hall, you had it under concession, did you manage it?”
Even though Arsovska first answered that she had filed a lawsuit for this matter, but after the journalist indicated to her that “there is some Imeprial company that is mentioned…”, Arsovska confirmed:
“So… I must tell you, in these 20 years I have been a manager in many enterprises, and to the moment wherever I had been a manger, they were successful enterprises…”.
The journalist on Kanal 5 explicitly asked Arsovska whether “this hall is part of your portfolio?”, to which Arsovska answered affirmative:
“Yes, it was 20 years ago, however, all those documents that have been taken and the lies that have been told in order to make this entire construction, unfortunately, are not true…”.
Arsovska denied that the sports hall was left in debts, and pointed out that for such claims she has already filed a lawsuit and that she expects official clarification.
After the journalist of Kanal 5 indicated “But now I don’t know what your share is in that, but the hall is otherwise falling apart, it can be seen that it is not managed well”, Arsovska reacted: “I have no share in that, but we will prove in the coming days who has managed it poorly…”.
In the previous days, SDSM at a press conference pointed out that Arsovska is hiding the connection with the sports hall Rasadnik in the biography posted on her Facebook page. According to SDSM, Arsovska had been a “catastrophic manager of the Skopje sports hall Rasadnik, built with self-contribution of the people of Skopje, and had rented it for 25 years for just one thousand euros a month when VMRO-DPMNE was in power.
SDSM also accused that Arsovska had tried to hide from the public her family companies with headquarters at the address of the “Rasadnik” hall, and that she also had hidden her maiden name Jovanovska, “so as not to reveal her nepotism and the connection with her family companies from the sports hall Rasadnik with the hotels “Imperial” and “Royal”.
“Civil Media” checked in the Central Registry (Register of real owners) the account current for natural person – real owner for “Danela Arsovska”. The data received show that Danela Arsovska is 100% real owner of only the entity “Independent candidate for mayor of the City of Skopje Danela Arsovska Local Elections 2021”, whose organizational form is described as a “political party”.
After such a result, logically the question arises: What kind of a successful manager is that, as Danela Arsovska is presenting herself in every address, who has(had) a connection with several companies, and now is not a real owner of any company, except of the entity that is collecting donations for the local elections?
“Civil Media” also checked the database ”Business and Financial Data Exchange of Southeast Europe“, where the search for “Danela Arsovska” gives the following results:
The results of this database show that apart from being a legal representative of her political entity registered for the needs of the campaign for the local elections, Danela Arsovska is also a “member of a supervisory board” of a financial institution in Skopje – Center, and also a legal representative in Stip of an “extraterritorial organization”, legal representative of an organization of employers in Kisela Voda, as well as an authorized representative of a department of a company in Skopje – Kisela Voda.
The search results do not indicate that Arsovska is an owner of a company, which confirms her statement that there is no company in her name.
However, following Arsovska’s statement “in these 20 years I have been a manager in many enterprises”, the question arises: why aren’t those enterprises mentioned in her biography, as evidence and example to one of her main claims of her campaign – that she had been a successful manager?
Apart from the evidence on her management of the Rasadnik hall, which Arsovska also confirmed, SDSM at several press conferences presented multiple evidence that before she had been an owner and manager of several companies together with her father, some of which had been registered with headquarters in the Rasadnik hall, and some at other addresses.
When she announced her biography, Arsovska said to the public: “I want you to know that I always am and will remain transparent on all issues”. However, Arsovska avoided most journalist questions regarding her management of companies that are not mentioned in her biography, and remained completely non-transparent about her past as a manager of companies.
When a candidate for mayor presents oneself as a successful manager and constantly claims that the city needs good management, the public has the right to know what kind of a manager that candidate had been in the past. If Arsovska had been a successful manager in many enterprises, as she claims, the public has the right to know those enterprises, in order to assess whether their management had been successful or not.
Furthermore, the public has the right to know why the person that is presenting itself as a successful manager is not a real owner of any company, even though in the past it had figured as a co-owner of several family companies together with her father?
Civil Media, during the pre-election campaign, tried to contact Arsovska and to have an interview. Despite the several attempts, sent invitations and contacts with her election headquarters, Arsovska did not respond to the invitation of Civil Media.
CIVIL Media Research Team
Translation: N. Cvetkovska
