Politics of the Republic of Macedonia

Macedonian lawmakers approved a bill by which Albanian became the second official language in the country, Channel 5 announced. The vote was held today in the Macedonian Parliament. 64 MPs supported the bill.

US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell told journalists in Skopje on Tuesday that the current conditions for reaching a compromise on the long-running name dispute between Macedonia and Greece are "better than they have ever been".

Mitchell added that "we want to make the best of those opportunities".

A new round of the Macedonia name dispute talks mediated by UN envoy Matthew Nimetz is expected by the end of the month or the beginning of April, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has announced.

After Prime Minister Boyko Borissov's meeting with EC President Jean-Claude Juncker and the leaders of the Western Balkans, Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev commented to the media that his country is ready with all the infrastructure projects and he is looking for European funding.

The prime minister of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Zoran Zaev, said in an interview published on Wednesday in the Financial Times that he is optimistic a solution to the name dispute with Greece will be reached soon, but reiterated that his country cannot accept the demand by Athens to change its constitution.

According to Macedonian newspaper Vecer, 10,000 people rallied despite the bad weather.

MIA agency reported that the protest was organized by the civic initiative "For United Macedonia" with the aim of "defending the name of the state and the identity of the nation."

Right-wing organizers of a protest rally on Tuesday in Skopje, called "For Defence of the Country's Name and the Nation's Identity", have called Macedonians from home and abroad to attend the event on Tuesday evening.

Mayor of Skopje Petre Silegov has defended a decision to remove a contentious statue from the entrance to the Supreme Court - saying its erection in 2014 had been illegal and had become synonymous with the failed ideology of the country's former authoritarian government.

Instead, he said the city will plant a tree, symbolizing human rights.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday hailed progress in talks between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, noting that a solution appeared "close."

"I am very pleased and relieved that... there is movement in the talks," Merkel told a press conference in Berlin with FYROM's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said the door is “always open to Turkish businesses,” which can invest in parts of the country tax-free for 10 years.