September 2 (SeeNews) - Macedonia's lawmakers approved on Friday the lineup of a new interim government that should organise snap elections on December 11, news agency MIA reported.
The early vote is part of the EU-brokered Przino agreement which aims to solve the 19-month political crisis in the country.
The new cabinet is headed by Emil Dimitriev, who has been the country's caretaker prime minister since January, and includes two new ministers - Oliver Spasovski, who will head the interior ministry and Frosina Remenski in charge of labour and social policy, MIA said. Both are from the socialist party SDSM, the country's main opposition party. The MPs also decided to replace five deputy ministers.
Macedonia missed two scheduled election dates earlier this year - in April and in June - as its political leaders failed to agree on key issues that should guarantee free and fair polls to end the stalemate.
In July, Macedonia's four main parties - ruling conservative VMRO-DPMNE, SDSM, and ethnic-Albanian DUI and DPA - reached a crucial consent on key issues, like the cleaning of the voters list and improving media freedom. The agreement, which included also a reaffirmed support to the special prosecutor and a strengthened focus on the inclusiveness of the process on reforms and their implementation, came one year after the first EU/U.S.-brokered Przino deal, which later stalled, deepening Macedonia’s political stalemate.
The political crisis in Macedonia started in January 2015, when Zaev accused the coalition government of VMRO-DPMNE and DUI of corruption, wiretapping illegally more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. It deepened in April 2016, when president Gjorge Ivanov surprisingly halted investigations against 56 officials suspected of being involved in the wire-tapping scandal, triggering continuing mass street protests. In June, Ivanov revoked all controversial pardons after strong pressure from the country's western partners.