The President of the Republic of Macedonia, Dr. Gjorge Ivanov today organized a meeting which was attended by the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Trajko Veljanoski, and the leaders of the political parties represented in the Assemby of the Republic of Macedonia.

Reason for summoning this meeting was to initiate open talks on current political situation in the country, with a special focus on the functioning of the democratic institutions.

President Ivanov assessed as positive the presence of the leaders at the meeting. Naturally all of us cannot have same views, same positions concerning the topics of today's agenda. It shows that in a democratic society everybody represents own positions, bearing at the same time responsibility  for its stands and actions, President Ivanov said after the meeting. The President assessed as positive that these issues were tackled and that there was an open debate. He also said that only through an open dialogue solutions can be found. The aim was, though an open dialogue between all relevant political parties, to come to a solution that will enable all institutions to work with full capacity, President Ivanov said.

The President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Trajko Veljanoski, after the meeting said that he expressed his readiness for all issues to be a subject of Parliament's debate and appealed the MPs to return to the Assembly. I called upon all political leaders to contribute to MPs' returning to the Parliament, to discuss all issues within the competences of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.  I must not and do not want to allow the Assembly to be held hostage by the work of any other power, such as the judiciary, said Veljanovski. The President of the Assembly accepted President Ivanov’s recommendation, through institutional talks within one month to detect problems within the competence of the Assembly. At the same time he urged the MPs to return to the Parliament for the institution to resume its regular work, because we owe this to the citizens, said Veljanoski and added that the institutional problem solving will send a strong message both to the citizens and to the international community.


The President of VMRO-DPMNE and of the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, after the meeting stressed that the opposition is against early elections. We have been told that they do not wish to discuss about elections if the Government rejects the prerequisite, to interfere in the work of judiciary and public prosecution. Even if elections were scheduled, the opposition would boycott the process, said Gruevski. The leader of VMRO-DPMNE said that the opposition considers legal the Government to influence the judiciary for the public prosecutor to revoke all his motions filed to the court, and that as long as this is not the case, they would boycott elections. This is yet another argument that ongoing developments are not aimed to provoke early elections but a result of concern over a possibility for the ruling parties to initiate such process. They said if the demand for interfering with the judiciary was not met and if elections were scheduled under any circumstances, they would boycott the process, which means they will once again cause damage to the country, Gruevski said. We expect the opposition to restore normal working attitude, and thus stop causing damage to all citizens. Such attitude is to the detriment of the whole country, the Euro-Atlantic integrations, the reports, as well as the image of the Republic of Macedonia, Gruevski said, adding that the only responsible move at this point would be to accept the initiative of the state, which was adopted by the President of the Assembly and start discussing all matters in a normal manner. 

The leader of SDSM, Branko Crvenkovski, said that the leaders’ meeting was unsuccessful. It is positive that this meeting was held, but negative is that it ended without outcome, said Crvenkovski and announced that if their precondition and known conditions are not met, they will not return to the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia. According to the leader of SDSM, the discussion during the meeting was focused on the issue that the executive power cannot and does not want to interfere in the functioning of the independent judiciary. The whole process, revealing of the crime, if there is crime in the companies registered at “Pero Nakov” set off with a political decision of the Prime Minister. That is why he made the political decision and interfered with the independence of the judiciary, he is now responsible to fix the situation. It was clearly announced and reiterated that it is a prerequisite to discuss other issues and for our eventual return to the Assembly, said Crvenkovski. SDSM leader dismissed as false the information that SDSM does not want early parliamentary elections. However, for this to happen amendments in the Electoral Code are necessary, purging of the voter list, as well as a constitutional amendment preventing the Minister of Justice to be a member of the Judicial Council and the Prosecutorial Council. As dysfunctional, Crvenkovski assessed President Ivanov’s proposal of establishing parliamentary commission tasked within a month to review all findings and report the results to the Assembly.

The President of the Liberal Democratic Party, Jovan Manasijevski said after the meeting that he called for early elections immediately, but he has not seen a mood for this neither in the position nor in the opposition. LDP leader assessed that the meeting was totally unsuccessful and there were no shifts by the ruling party and the opposition.

The leader of New Democracy, Imer Selmani, said that the government had no sense for a debate and that a solution is necessary for the disputable issues. Topics to be discussed, according to him, are the census, the church under construction and the requirements related to the Constitution.

The meeting held in the Office of the President of the Republic of Macedonia was attended by all invited participants, except the President of DPA, Thaci.