Macedonia’s Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has submitted his resignation under an agreement with the opposition, paving the way for early parliamentary elections.
Parliament speaker Trajko Veljanoski said on January 15 that he would await the outcome of talks between EU enlargement commissioner Johannes Hahn and political leaders before putting the resignation to a vote in the assembly.
Hahn was due to meet later in the day with Gruevski and opposition leaders on implementing last July's EU-brokered agreement.
Under the deal, a candidate from Gruevski’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party will head a caretaker government until snap elections on April 24.
The small Balkan nation was plunged into crisis after allegations by the opposition that the government illegally wire-tapped 20,000 people, including police, judges, journalists and foreign diplomats. The government denies the claims.