The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) will have 279 observers for the presidential elections in Macedonia. The mission comprises a core team of 11 experts based in Skopje and 18 long-term observers, who will be deployed throughout the country in nine teams starting from 20 March. ODIHR will request that OSCE participating States provide 250 short-term ...

The 76th anniversary of the deportation of Macedonian Jews was marked on Monday with several activities. FM Nikola Dimitrov laid flowers at the statue commemorating 7,144 Macedonian Jews that were in 1943 taken from Skopje to the Treblinka camp. As he said, even after 76 years, the pain, sadness and bitterness over the monstrous attempt to destroy the Jewish people ...

On Sunday, PM and SDSM leader Zoran Zaev and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski held the leaders’ meeting. Providing conditions for presidential elections and reform laws were the discussed topics. After the meeting, Mickoski said they had exchanged facts about those matters. “We have concluded that Macedonia must go in a right direction,” the VMRO-DPMNE leader stressed. According to him, the ...

“All processes about which pieces of evidence exist continue from the point they are currently at,” PM Zoran Zaev said on Thursday, answering a journalist’s question whether he was actually saving, through the new Draft Law on the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO), his coalition partner, DUI leader Ali Ahmeti. According to the PM, there is no possibility in the document ...

The new Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) law, which will see the institution headed by Katica Janeva become part of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO), will not allow for hidden amnesty, Justice Minister Renata Deskoska stated on Wednesday. According to her, the SPO will have the jurisdiction to continue all procedures that are in the charge stage, but also investigations and ...

The Government adopted on Tuesday the new draft-law concerning the Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO). Now, the process will move to Parliament. PM Zoran Zaev expects parliamentarians, too, to unite. In the coming period, as he announced, there will be negotiations with all smaller and bigger opposition parties. For now, VMRO-DPMNE’s parliamentary group doesn’t have a concrete stand on whether it ...

On Monday, Philip Reeker, US European Command Civilian Deputy and Political Advisor to the Commander, said at a conference in Skopje that the Prespa Agreement had opened Macedonia’s path to NATO membership and further European integration. The former Ambassador to Skopje also added that the success of the name deal proved what hard work and compromise could achieve “when leaders ...

At their meeting on Wednesday, PM and SDSM leader Zoran Zaev and DUI leader Ali Ahmeti agreed on a joint candidate for the presidential race. The name will be announced on Friday. “We carried out an essential analysis, decided that we should set a standard in the country. Though there were attempts for that in the past, too, they weren’t ...

Gjoko Kostevski will continue to be Director of the Suto Orizari prison until the presidential elections. His resignation over the incident in which former ministers Mile Janakieski and Spiro Ristovski were attacked will be reviewed by the Government after the elections. The law says that it cannot be accepted right away, according to the Government, which sees nothing problematic with ...

The Criminal Court considers that it has done its job because it already requested for MP and former PS Trajko Veljanoski’s immunity to be revoked. It will make a decision only if it gets some notification from Parliament or possibly from the Prosecutor’s Office, but one hasn’t arrived so far regarding Veljanoski’s immunity. Considering Sunday’s developments in Parliament, Veljanoski, who ...