Nikola Gruevski

This was stated by Nikola Gruevski, the former Macedonian prime minister who has received asylum in Hungary.

In his first TV appearance since he escaped from Macedonia to Hungary in November last year, former Macedonian prime minister and former VMRO DPMNE party leader Nikola Gruevski said he fled from Macedonia after "reliable sources" warned him that the new government was plotting to assassinate him.

Amid intensive talks with party leaders to secure the parliamentary votes needed to ratify a contentious deal on the name dispute with Greece, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Friday sought to dampen concerns in Athens over the agreement.

About a month since his escape from serving a jail sentence in Macedonia, Hungarian news site 24.hu captured a short video footage of Nikola Gruevski in a restaurant in one of the wealthiest districts in Budapest.

Former Macedonian secret police chief Vladimir Atanasovski was arrested on Tuesday and placed in 30 days' detention on the request of the State Prosecution, which said there was a risk be might flee the country after his name was mentioned in a trial for the storming of the parliament building in 2017.

The European Parliament welcomed a decision by the parliament in Skopje to start the constitutional process of implementing the name deal signed between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece.

MEPs said the agreement, signed last June, opens the door to FYROM's EU and NATO accession negotiations.

The European Parliament welcomed a decision by the parliament in Skopje to start the constitutional process of implementing the name deal signed between the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Greece.

MEPs said the agreement, signed last June, opens the door to FYROM's EU and NATO accession negotiations.

European Parliamentarians adopted country resolutions on Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania on Thursday, underlining that each one must improve its results on issues related to judiciary and media freedom. 

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban needs to offer a "sound explanation" of his country's decision to grant political asylum to the former prime minister of the ex Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), the European Union's head of membership bids tweeted on Wednesday.

Macedonia's former chief of the secret police, Saso Mijalkov, who is currently on trial in several high-profile court cases, was detained on Tuesday evening and given a 30-day detention, the Skopje Criminal Court confirmed.