Mila Carovska

A minister in North Macedonia's technical government, formed to preside over the April elections, has defended her right to challenge the country's landmark agreement with Greece over its name, saying she was only correcting a historic injustice.

The first-ever Pride Parade staged in the capital of North Macedonia started on Saturday at noon in the park in front of the national assembly in the centre of Skopje. After a stroll through the sun-drenched city streets, the marchers ended up in Skopje's main park.

On the same day, just a few hundred meters away, a group called the "Alliance for Life" is staging a counter-march, it said, in defence of "traditional family values".

Some of this march's supporters have called people on social networks to resist what they call a "gender ideology" that they call "the work of Satan".

Parallel marches with different audiences:

The opposition VMRO DPMNE party has begun what appears to be a campaign of no-confidence motions in parliament, although they are not likely to succeed, as the Social Democrats and their ruling coalition partners hold a small but solid majority among the 120 MPs.

Macedonia's Social Policy Ministry has denounced as lies claims by the opposition right-wing VMRO DPNNE party that the country is considering building permanent housing and issuing citizenship to migrants from the war-torn Middle-Eastern countries who are traversing its territory.

Zoran Zaev revealed the composition of his cabinet late Sunday, which parliament is expected to approved this week. Speaker of Parliament Talat Xhaferi has set the date for the session to start on Tuesday.

The key posts are to be shared between Zaev's Social Democratic Party, SDSM, and Macedonia's main ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI.