Macedonia Political Leaders Fail to Reach Agreement, to Meet Again on 26 May

Motorcycle passes by the tent city of anti-government protestors set up in front of the government building in Skopje, Macedonia, 18 May 2015. Photo EPA/BGNES

The second meeting of the leaders of Macedonia's four biggest political parties aimed at resolving the political crisis in the country ended inconclusively on Monday, telma.mk reported.

The leaders agreed to meet again on 26 May.

The meeting brought together Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, leader of conservative VMRO-DPMNE party, Ali Ahmeti, leader of the junior government coalition partner, ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), as well as the leader of opposition Social Democrats (SDSM) Zoran Zaev and Menduh Thaci, who is leading the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA).

US Ambassador to Macedonia Jess Baily and the head of the EU Delegation in Skopje Aivo Orav were attending as observers as they did at the first meeting held last Thursday.

Like the previous one, Monday's meeting was held behind closed doors. 

Zaev said after the meeting that DUI submitted a proposal to set up working groups which would try to find ways for resolving the political crisis but the proposals weren't  discussed.

VMRO-DPMNE said it would review the proposals, while DPA commented some of them were acceptable, according to Macedonian news agency MIA.

Zaev also said he and Gruevski will meet with EU officials in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday. 

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