Macedonia

Dnevnik: Macedonia expects to get EU talks date in December, says president

Macedonia’s government is mulling recommendations from the OSCE’s election body, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, ODIHR, that ministers stop abusing their official positions during election campaigns.The ODIHR says that during election campaigns, ministers should perform only “technical duties”, and not appear at public events such as openings …

Several thousand protestors gathered in Skopje and other towns in what has become a regular weekly protest against hikes in utility bills.For the third week running, several thousand Macedonians protested in central Skopje on Tuesday before the headquarters of the State Regulatory Commission, which determines the prices of commodities.

Macedonia’s denar is not about to be devalued, the Finance Minister Zoran Stavreski said, addressing recent speculation on the subject.Macedonia’s Finance Minister has appealed to people “to maintain faith in the domestic currency and keep their savings in denars”, denying reports that the currency was about to be devalued.

PM Gruevski says ruling VMRO-DPMNE is ready for early polls if its Albanian partners demand them.The Macedonian Prime Minister, Nikola Gruevski, on Wednesday said the government coalition was in crisis and that if its ethnic Albanian coalition partner wanted elections, his VMRO-DPMNE party is ready. “We do not want early …

The head of the Open Society Institute – Macedonia, Vladimir Milcin, will sue the Lustration Commission and its head, Tome Adziev, for wrongfully naming him a Communist-era police informant.Vladimir Milcin, a vocal critic of the government, accused Tome Adziev of deliberately withholding three key documents that prove his innocence against …

A Macedonian gay rights organisation announced on Thursday that the first Pride Parade in Skopje would be held next year.The organisation – the Council of the LGBT United – held a meeting and decided to form a body tasked with organising the first gay pride parade. According to the organisers, …

The Macedonian Lustration Commission named 11 people as collaborators with the former police and state security agencies on Monday, under the newly adopted Lustration Law.The eleven alleged police informants are the same people who had been lustrated under the old law that was scrapped by the Constitutional Court, which ruled …

Jailed former police minister Ljube Boskoski is the prime suspect for the killing of Marjan Tusevski, who was shot dead by unidentified hitmen 11 years ago in Skopje.Macedonian police on Tuesday arrested nine other former police officials who are also suspected in relation to the unsolved murder of Tusevski, a …

A human right activist is suing President Gjorge Ivanov for approving the new Lustration law that some rights groups deem unconstitutional.Mirjana Najcevska, former head of the Macedonian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights, is suing President Ivanov for “non-compliance with a decision by the Constitutional Court”, a criminal act according to …