VMRO DPMNE party

Right-wing organizers of a protest rally on Tuesday in Skopje, called "For Defence of the Country's Name and the Nation's Identity", have called Macedonians from home and abroad to attend the event on Tuesday evening.

Mayor of Skopje Petre Silegov has defended a decision to remove a contentious statue from the entrance to the Supreme Court - saying its erection in 2014 had been illegal and had become synonymous with the failed ideology of the country's former authoritarian government.

Instead, he said the city will plant a tree, symbolizing human rights.

A growing rift inside the BESA party in Macedonia has resulted this week in two rival party congresses being set for February 24 - with each side insisting it has the right to lead the party.

Some 61 per cent of Macedonians support a solution to the dispute with Greece over their country's name, if it speeds up Macedonia's entry into NATO and the EU, a survey by the Skopje-based Institute for Democracy - Societas Civilis, a think tank, shows.

Bulgaria's parliament has voted in favour of a historic accord with Macedonia - signed by the prime ministers of Bulgaria and Macedonia in August 2017 - by 186 votes to zero.

The vote in Sofia followed ratification of the treaty by Macedonia's parliament on Monday, despite a boycott of the vote by Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party.

The law, which passed in parliament late Monday, pardons all convicts serving jail sentences of less than six months, about 670 of them.

The law also cuts the jail terms of some 3,100 prisoners serving for less than five years by 30 per cent.

Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party insists that its MPs' caucus in parliament stands united behind the new party chief, Hristijan Mickoski, elected in December - despite growing evidence to the contrary.

"The caucus is strong and united. All MPs are actively participating in the decision-making process within the organs of the party," VMRO DPMNE told BIRN on Thursday.

New chief prosecutor Joveski will face a struggle to restore faith in the institution which was noted in many reports issued by watchdogs and by Brussels and Washington as having many shortcomings, including the selective application of justice.

Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, which held power for 11 years until this May, said that only one person, the party secretary general, Hristijan Mickovski, is standing in the leadership election, which will take place at the party congress on Friday and Saturday.

The central and the executive committees of Macedonia's opposition VMRO DPMNE party have until Friday to address the complaints of some 30 prominent party members who claim that the election of a new leader, slated for this weekend at a party congress, will be marred by fraud.