German Envoy to Put Demands to Macedonia Leaders
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| Johannes Haindl |
During two days in Macedonia, the German envoy who is also German ambassador to Austria will meet leaders of the four main parties in Macedonia as well as the ambassadors of the EU member states and the US, the German embassy in Macedonia said.
He is not due to see Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov whose hotly contested pardon is seen as having worsened the country’s political crisis.
Media reports citing unnamed sources close to the talks said Haindl will put three key demands on the table.
One is to scrap the April 12 Presidential pardon of top politicians and their associates, which has effectively blocked the work of the Special Prosecution, formed last year to investigate high-level crime and has sparked massive anti-government protests.
The second demand is to postpone the early elections, which the ruling VMRO DPMNE party led by Nikola Gruevski insists on holding on June 5.
While VMRO DPMNE submitted its list of MP candidates by the deadline of midnight on Wednesday, the other three main parties – which reject a June voting date, saying preconditions for free and fair elections have not been met – did not submit lists.
The third demand likely to be put on the table concerns protecting the integrity of the Constitutional Court, which many see as having come under Gruevski’s influence and which is pushing to scrap the Special Prosecution as unconstitutional.
A source said this could be done by demanding that the Court pronounce itself incompetent to decide on this issue.
Media reports say talks with party leaders will also focus on the formation of a new caretaker government that would renew efforts to purify the electoral roll, conduct media reforms to ensure balance and put in place other reforms that would end political pressure on voters and misuse of state assets for political purposes before a new election date is set.
The crisis in Macedonia revolves around opposition claims that the government formerly led by Gruevski was responsible for the illegal wiretapping of over 20,000 people, amongst other crimes.
Gruevski, who took power in 2006 and resigned as prime minister earlier this year under the terms of an EU-brokered accord reached last summer, claims that unnamed foreign intelligence services “fabricated” the wiretapping tapes and gave them to the opposition to destabilise the country.
