Zoran Zaev

A resurrected project to build high-rise buildings on a prominent site in the centre of North Macedonia's capital Skopje has sparked petitions and criticism of the authorities for their inaction in preventing it.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev sent on Wednesday, 29 civic organisations, including prominent architects, urged him to stop the project.

The head of the main opposition VMRO DPMNE party in North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, told Alfa TV on Thursday that since his party revealed a passport forgery scam involving the police, he and his loved ones had received grave threats.

Surprise

Bulgaria's April 4 Parliamentary election was always going to produce an interesting result, given the strong polling of several populist or anti-corruption groupings taking part. Yet the final outcome was a surprise to most observers and many of the participants.

A curfew is introduced in the Republic of North Macedonia from today until April 20, and all dining facilities will be closed, Skopje editions reported. At a press conference, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced that the curfew will start at 8 p.m. and last until 5 a.m., and restaurants will be closed for the next two weeks.

After North Macedonia's parliament failed to meet a Wednesday deadline to amend the census law and delay the long-awaited operation due to begin on Thursday, the State Statistical Office - in charge of the headcount - said it will not send census takers out into the field.

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.

The Macedonain Foreign Affairs Ministry and the VMRO-DPMNE party issued a protest to Bulgaria after the latest nationalist outburst from Bulgarian member of the European Parliament Angel Dzhambazki. Dzhambazki, who is part of the VMRO-BND party which is in Prime Minister Borisov's coalition, threatened Macedonia with a "dreadful end" if it "continues to reject its Bulgarian character".

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.

NATO on Wednesday declined to comment on claims by North Macedonia's leader that the country's NATO commitments had got in the way of timely purchases of COVID vaccines.

Several smaller parliamentary parties from all sides of the political spectrum in North Macedonia, supported by the main ruling Social Democrats, on Friday filed a fresh draft to change the election system and encourage more political diversity.