Social Democratic Union of Macedonia

In an interview for state run MIA news Agency, Nikola Gruevski for the first time has denied involvement in a bank sale that the opposition revealed in late April.

“I have never taken a million-and-a-half euros in cash, nor have I in any other way  taken any other sum for the sale of Makedonska Banka. All the other accusations that come out of this are also untrue,” Gruevski said.

The opposition led by the Social Democratic Party, SDSM, whose MPs submitted written resignations to parliament last week after alleging fraud at April's elections, is seriously considering setting up a ‘shadow government’, a high-ranking party source told Balkan Insight on Monday.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski is suing the head of the Social Democrats, SDSM, Zoran Zaev, for slander, demanding  half-a-million euro in compensation, Zaev's lawyer, Miroslav Vujic, said.

The first court hearing is scheduled for June 19.

The 33 MPs from the opposition Social Democratic Party, SDSM, the Liberal Democrats, LDP, and the New Social Democrats, NSDP, have submitted formal resignations to the speaker of parliament.

They dispute the legitimacy of the April general and presidential elections and attribute the victory of Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to fraud.

Macedonia's opposition Social Democrats, SDSM, have submitted a forensic analysis conducted in Serbia that they say proves that Gruevski's own voice can be heard on a telephone recording in which a man was discussing the sale of the bank.

The prosecution in Macedonia says it is still deciding whether to take this new alleged evidence into account, however.

A gym and relaxation area for MPs complete with baths will soon be put to good use, the speaker of the Macedonian parliament, Trajko Veljanoski, said on Thursday, leading a tour of parliament's new leisure facilities.

The revamp of the parliament building was launched in 2010 at a planned cost of 11 million euro.

After Macedonia held a constituent session of the new parliament on Saturday without opposition MPs, legislators from the ruling coalition are mulling how to fill key parliamentary bodies that require opposition MPs' presence.

The inaugural session in parliament on Monday was held in a half-empty hall, with almost the entire opposition and the junior ruling Albanian party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, refusing to attend.

At a post-election congress on Sunday in Skopje, party delegates reconfirmed Zaev’s leadership position after a 12-hour-long debate.

In the vote of confidence, 413 party delegates supported Zaev while 146 voted against him, with 105 abstentions.

Macedonia's main opposition party has filed corruption charges against Police Minister Jankuloska on two criminal accounts of misuse of office and of tax evasion.

The Social Democrats, SDSM, say she illegally accepted cash donations for her party, VMRO DPMNE, in 2006.