EU mediators urge talks to end Macedonia’s political crisis

On Wednesday, he said the party had “buried the agreement” reached under European Union auspices last year which was aimed at resolving the two-year political crisis in the Balkans country.

The Special Prosecution, whose work has been undermined by the presidential pardon, suspects four persons, including a construction inspector in the Skopje municipality of Gazi Baba, of illegally flattening a residential building in 2011 owned by the businessman and politician Fiat Canovski.

Demonstrators officially took to the streets in protests to the decision of Macedonia’s President, Gjorge Ivanov, to stop investigations into 56 public figures in connection to a political scandal.

Ivanov’s pardon of police, government officials, and others over the wiretapping of about 20,000 people has intensified the worst political crisis in the landlocked country of 2.1 million in more than a decade. Ivanov has stood firm, although he has said that any politician who had received a pardon could ask for it to be overturned in his or her individual case.

Meanwhile, a group called GDOM (Citizen Movement for Defense of Macedonia) that supports the ruling party VMRO-DPMNE, will organize a counter-protest.

The pardons, issued before an early election planned for June 5, have prompted daily opposition protests since last week.

Then-prime minister Nikola Gruevski, who stepped down in January, has denied the claims and has instead accused opposition leader Zoran Zaev of plotting a coup.

The EU on Thursday intensified pressure by threatening unspecified sanctions.

The EU delegation in Macedonia had invited the Macedonian parties for talks with Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn and three members of the European Parliament, but the main opposition party declined to take part.

It is unclear if the June elections will go ahead even if the pardon issue is resolved, however. They added that they were now forced to consider further actions, according to a joint statement published on Thursday, without giving details. He’s now pushing for a June 5 snap election to end the crisis. “We urge the European Union and the worldwide community that we had enough of their interference in the internal affairs of Macedonia“, Lazo Pecev said, Macedonian who is living and working in Vienna for many years and originates from the Strumica village of Kolesino.