Macedonian PM, opposition leader fail to reach agreement

The main opposition party SDSM will not drop its boycott of parliament unless the ruling VMRO-DPMNE meets its key demands concerning the electoral code, updating voting lists and unfreezing the bank accounts of A1 TV, SDSM leader Branko Crvenkovski said on Tuesday (March 15th) after a marathon meeting with Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. Beyond that, Crvenkovski is not ruling out a potential boycott of possible snap elections. Gruevski says the SDSM lacks public support, and is making these demands as an excuse to avoid participating in early elections. The VMRO-DPMNE says that all of SDSM’s demands for free and democratic elections have been met except for the one referring to the composition of election boards. Gruevski says that a law on media could be drafted after the elections and that he cannot interfere in judicial decisions regarding A1’s bank accounts.