Hristijan Mickoski

The formation of North Macedonia's caretaker government, tasked with ensuring democratic early general elections on April 12, has encountered new complications after the opposition VMRO DPMNE party proposed an army lieutenant-colonel, Dragan Kovacki, as caretaker interior minister.

The Prime Minister and head of the main ruling Social Democratic Party, Zoran Zaev, and the head of the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickoski, were expected to strike a final deal at the weekend on the formation of a so-called technical government in January, 100 days ahead of the April 12 early elections.

Ruling alliance candidate Stevo Pendarovski [right] with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev [left]. Photo: EPA/EFE GEORGI LICOVSKI

North Macedonia's Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, has said that he agreed to change his country's name and Constitution because PM Alexis Tsipras accepted the existence of a "Macedonian identity".

In a debate with opposition VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, Zaev also noted that Tsipras had initially accepted the name Republic of Ilinden Macedonia.

In what was seen as a bid by the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party to flex its muscles following a period of turbulence within its own ranks, thousands of people marched in the streets of Skopje to demonstrate their discontent with the Social Democrat-led government.

The right-wing VMRO DPMNE opposition party cannot sell or rent its lavish 'white palace' HQ in central Skopje, nor many of its other real-estate assets across the country, until the end of the major money-laundering case codenamed 'Talir', the Special Prosecution, SJO told BIRN on Thursday.

Skopje Criminal Court issued this ruling on Wednesday, the sources said.

Several prominent opposition party officials and MPs resigned from their VMRO DPMNE party positions in the past few days, accusing the leadership of isolating the party and taking an anti-Western course which they do not want to follow.

The most recent to resign, on Wednesday, was the head of the party's youth union, Luka Krzaloski. 

At an extraordinary session of its central committee on Monday night, VMRO DPMNE purged several high-profile members, requested resignations from renegade MPs who supported the 'name' agreement with Greece at last week's parliamentary vote and threatened to oust other MPs if they support the agreement in the future.

The leader of the main opposition party in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) has urged the left-wing government to call early elections and to give up on a deal that would change the country's name in exchange for the chance to fulfill its NATO ambitions. 

The vice-president of Macedonia's main ruling Social Democratic Party, Petre Shilegov, on Wednesday confirmed that his parliamentary group has begun talks with its opposition rivals in parliament to persuade them to vote for the historic "name" agreement with Greece.