May 27 (SeeNews) - Macedonian president Gjorge Ivanov announced on Friday he is revoking partially his controversial pardons from last month that aggravated the political crisis in the country and fuelled heavy criticism from its European and US partners.
On April 12, Ivanov surprisingly halted investigations against 56 officials suspected of being involved in a wire-tapping scandal. Now, he revoked the pardons for 22 of them, saying he chose those who are "exposed to politics", without naming them.
The remaining 34 persons can request their pardons to be rescinded in line with the law amendment adopted last week, Ivanov said in a speech, posted on the presidency's website.
According to local media reports, the 22 revoked pardons include those for ex-PM and leader of the ruling VMRO DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski, the leader of the main opposition party, socialist SDSM, Zoran Zaev, the leader of ethnic Albanian DPA, Menduh Thaci, parliament speaker Trajko Veljanoski, as well as current and former government officials, ministers, and mayors, among others.
"No politician is above the law. [...] On the contrary, everybody will be held responsible for their actions," Ivanov said in his speech, but added that he still considers the pardons the best opportunity to restore the trust and solve the crisis.
However, international observers were not happy with Ivanov's decision:
"Partial or selective revocations of the pardons will add to a growing sense of impunity in this country and prevent Macedonia from making progress on its most important goals, including progress toward NATO and the EU. Macedonia needs to address this issue comprehensively," the U.S. Embassy Macedonia said in its Facebook account.
Macedonia has been locked in a deepening crisis, which started in January 2015 when Zaev accused the coalition government of the conservative VMRO-DPMNE and ethnic-Albanian DUI of corruption, wiretapping illegally more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. For its part, the government charged Zaev with trying to destabilise the country.
In an attempt to break the political deadlock, the main political parties, with the mediation of the EU and the US, called early elections for April 24. The polls were later postponed for June 5 under pressure from the EU and the US, which insisted that Macedonia needed more time to meet the international community's requirements for organising credible elections.
However, VMRO DPMNE was the only party that registered candidates for the June 5 vote with the elections committee, while SDSM, DUI and DPA boycotted the elections.
On May 18, Macedonia's parliament cancelled the June 5 vote, without setting a new date.