Macedonia crisis talks yield no breakthroughs

Talks between Macedonia's embattled premier and the opposition failed to yield any breakthroughs Wednesday toward ending the political crisis that has paralysed the small Balkan country.

The opposition accuses conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski of corruption, wiretapping and other wrongdoings and has vowed to protest until he quits.

Gruevski and the centre-left opposition leader Zoran Zaev met until early Wednesday in Strasbourg behind closed doors as their supporters led rival protests for the fourth straight day in Macedonia's capital Skopje.

A statement from the European Parliament, which brokered the talks, said both sides have confirmed a commitment to the EU integration process and "agreed to put the interest of the country first."

The mediators "welcomed the efforts of the party leaders to work towards an agreement in the interest of all citizens of the country."
Talks are to continue on May 26 in Skopje, officials said.

Macedonia obtained EU candidate status in 2005, but is yet to begin accession talks due to opposition from Greece.

Athens denies its neighbour the right to use the name Macedonia, arguing it implies a claim on the northern Greek region of the same name.

As the talks were underway some 150 opposition supporters calling for Gruevski to resign were still camped in front of the prime minister's offices in Skopje.

"I'm not tired, we will continue our action till the end," said activist Ivana Lesoska.

The opposition, which gathered more than 20,000 people at a protest rally on Sunday, accuses Gruevski of corruption, wiretapping and other wrongdoings, and has vowed to remain on the streets until he quits.

The protestors, whose numbers grow to around 1,000 every evening, said their aim was to maintain pressure on the government to go.
At the same time just two kilometres (1.5 miles) away, about 50 Gruevski supporters have also set up a rival camp after a pro-government rally on Monday attracted at least 30,000 people.

"They (the opposition) are misleading the whole country, stealing democracy simply because they lost the elections" in April 2014, Trajanka Arsenova, who travelled from the eastern town of Stip, told AFP.

The former Yugoslav republic of 2.1 million people, of which around a quarter are ethnic Albanians, has been dogged by political crisis since last year's election were disputed by the opposition.

The country was further shaken by a bloody clash between police and ethnic Albanian gunmen, many from neighbouring Kosovo, that left 18 people dead earlier this month.

It was the worst unrest in Macedonia since its 2001 conflict between the government and ethnic Albanian rebels.

It raised concerns in Europe mindful of the past insurgency and a series wars that accompanied the former Yugoslavia's collapse in the 1990s.