Macedonia

A new TV station, A3, will try to revive the spirit of the once prominent national station, A1 TV, which was shut down last year by the authorities.The new station’s editor-in-chief, Aco Kabranov, said he intended to bring back the old A1 team of journalists. “We will bring back 80 …

A debate in parliament over a controversial law on armed forces exposed predictable divisions between ethnic Macedonians who support it and Albanians who oppose it.The law, put forward by the main ruling VMRO DPMNE party, concerns the rights of members of the Macedonian armed forces who fought in the 2001 …

Macedonia’s new Lustration Law, aimed at rooting out former police collaborators, may encounter the fate as the previous one, as key provisions are again contested before the Constitutional Court.Macedonia’s Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and a retired lawyer, Stamen Filipov – in two separate motions filed to the court on …

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, …