Hristijan Mickoski

The Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that at least nine police officers have been arrested so far on suspicion of being part of a group that issued false passports and identity documents to foreign citizens.

"The operation is ongoing and we will have more info once it wraps up, later today or tomorrow," a high-ranking official in the Interior Ministry told BIRN.

Recently-detained business magnate Orce Kamcev has long been the focus of controversy in North Macedonia, where he had close connections to the authoritarian government of former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

Monday's agreement between Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats, and the opposition VMRO DPMNE party leader, Hristijan Mickoski, to postpone the nationwide census for six months from April to September due to the COVID-19 crisis has angered members of the ruling coalition as well as opposition parties.

Two days before it was scheduled to start, North Macedonia's governing and opposition parties have agreed to postpone the long-awaited census for five months so that census takers and the wider population can get vaccinated first.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev on Wednesday unexpectedly asked North Macedonia's parliament to take an immediate vote of confidence in his cabinet after the main opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party claimed Zaev's wafer-thin majority in parliament was shaky, and that it could soon muster enough support to topple him.

Ilhan Kyuchyuk, the European Parliament's standing rapporteur for North Macedonia, is on an official visit to Skopje. He has already met with North Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski, PM Zoran Zaev, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bujar Osmani, Vice-PM Nikola Dimitrov, Minister of Local Self-Government Goran Milevski and opposition party leader Hristijan Mickoski.

The heads of the diplomatic missions of EU Member States in the Republic of North Macedonia, led by EU Ambassador David Gere, at their regular annual meeting with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev showed particular interest in resolving open issues with the Republic of Bulgaria, which resulted in no consensus on the negotiating framework for North Macedonia in Brussels, reports the "Sloboden Pecat", qu

Some 2,000 protesters staged an opposition rally in North Macedonia late Thursday to demand the resignation of the country's Social Democrat prime minister, Zoran Zaev.

North Macedonia's president has declared an eight-day state of emergency ahead of an early national election after the country's main political leaders agreed the vote will be held on July 15.

Early general elections in North Macedonia, which were put on hold due to the COVID-19 crisis, will be held on July 15, the head of the main ruling Social Democrats, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, said on Monday, after striking a deal with the opposition parties.