Politics of the Republic of Macedonia

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev in Belgrade on Tuesday.

On that occasion, Zaev presented a gift to Vucic: the number 9 Vardar football club jersey, with Serbian president's last name printed on it.

A lot of progress has been made in Macedonia, the European Commission and the EU member states are now seeing more positives about the country's situation and the opportunity to start the accession talks.

This was stated by EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn at a press conference in Skopje with Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev will be in Serbia on November 20 and 21 on an official visit.

Beta reported on Friday that this was announced by the Macedonian government.

''We are not only friends with Bulgaria, but we have become allies.'' This is what Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev said in an interview with bTV.

"Macedonia has won the neighborhood Agreement with Bulgaria and has lost nothing, we speak in a language that we understand, only together we can help each other and move forward," Zaev said.

The parliament of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) voted in principle the bill to expand the use of the Albanian language.

In favour of the bill voted 66 MPs (coming from the ruling Social Democratic Union/SDSM of Zoran Zaev and Ali Ahmeti’s DUI) while 41 MPs voted against (coming from VMRO-DPMNE’s main opposition party, Nikola Gruevski).

The monuments of “Alexander the Great”, “Mother Teresa” and “Andon Janev Koseto” will soon be removed from Skopje’s central square. The government has gathered a group of experts who are reviewing the monuments built as part of the “Skopje 2014” project.

The renaming of Skopje’s airport from “Alexander the Great” to “Kiro Gligorov” (former Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia -FYROM- president) proposed diplomats in the country, an idea that seems to be accepted by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev despite the strong objections expressed by Nikola Gruevski’s main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE.

Macedonia has sacked 11 police officers over their role in the April 27 mob assault on parliament that left dozens of MPs injured.

Most were working in the police's so-called Directorate Six, a body tasked with securing the safety of VIPs and important institutions.

Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris will travel to Skopje on Thursday to meet with his counterpart, Petre Silegov, and discuss closer ties between the two cities.

VMRO DPMNE spokesperson Ivo Kotevski on Monday said the opposition party, which suffered a crushing defeat in just finished local elections, will not give up the few mayoral seats it won.