VMRO-DPMNE

Lawmakers from the ruling parties on Monday gave the thumbs up on an interim Macedonian government, local media report.

The caretaker cabinet, which is to help the country prepare for early elections on April 24, was approved by lawmakers from the main ruling VMRO-DPMNE and its coalition partner in the previous government, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

Macedonia's parliament voted on Jan. 18 to dissolve itself as of Feb. 24, clearing the way to an early parliamentary election two months later that the opposition says it will boycott.

An important progress towards solving the political crisis in Macedonia was made on Monday as resigned Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski confirmed that early parliamentary elections will be held on April 24 as had been agreed in the summer of last year.

The head of Macedonia's opposition SDSM party vowed that the socialists will not take part in the early general election on April 24 if they are on scheduled.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski submitted his resignation to the Speaker of Parliament Trajko Veljanoski on Friday.

The resignation of Gruevski is part of the political agreements reached between the main political parties of Macedonia in June and July last year with the mediation of the EU.

Macedonia's four main political parties on Friday reached consensus on power sharing in the period until the snap elections now confirmed for April 24 of next year.

The ambassadors of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union, in a joint statement on Tuesday urged Nikola Gruevski's VMRO DPMNE party to urgently implement several key reforms that they agreed this summer.

Working groups of the main Macedonian parties failed to reach an agreement on resolving the country's political crisis.

According to media reports, parties continue to disagree over the competencies of the new ministries and the deputy-ministers nominated by the opposition, MIA news agency informs.

Leaders of the four biggest parties in Macedonia have contracted an agreement for the resolution of the political crisis in the country. The early parliamentary elections have now been scheduled for April 24, 2016, as reported by MIA news agency.

A mediator in the negotiations has been EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn who made a statement on the decisions agreed shortly after midnight.

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski announced on Wednesday that an agreement has been reached between the leaders of the four main parties to bring to an end the political crisis, which has gripped the country in the last several months.