Social Democratic Union of Macedonia

Asked whether he would resign if his party loses the October 15 local elections in Macedonia, former PM Gruevski - whose VMRO DPMNE party ran Macedonia for 11 years until recently - said only that he would assume responsibility for the result, whatever it was.

The main ruling party, the Social Democrats, SDSM and its ethnic Albanian junior ruling party, the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, have confirmed that they are on the verge of making official their deal to support each other's candidates for the local elections on October 15.

The number of Macedonians who see the political situation in the Balkan country as "peaceful and stable" rose from only 5 per cent in March to 44 per cent in August, a survey published on Monday by the International Republican Institute, IRI, an NGO, says.

Gjorgi Lazarevski, one of three former Macedonian secret policemen who are credited with handed over wiretapped recordings of official conversations to the then opposition leader, Zoran Zaev, said he was delighted that his actions had exposed and ultimately brought down the government of Nikola Gruevski.

With 64 votes for the dismissal and none against in Macedonia's 120-seat parliament, the majority led by the Social Democrats, SDSM, dismissed the controversial Public Prosecutor, Marko Zvrlevski, a key ally of the now ousted VMRO DPMNE-led government.

The vote took place after MPs from the opposition VMRO DPMNE party left the chamber in protest.

Many of the new government's proposed bills, regulations and appointments may fall victim to the strategy adopted by the former ruling VMRO DPMNE, whose MPs have formed ten separate parliamentary caucuses which gave them more opportunities to stall parliament's work.

Just one month since its election, the new government led by the Social Democrats, SDSM, has announced the revision of several expensive, controversial projects.

They include a new medical centre in Skopje, two stretches of highway funded by a Chinese loan and the grand revamp of the capital commonly called "Skopje 2014".

The governing coalition in FYROM may be dissolved after 100 days in office, if the new bill on a wider use of the Albanian language, is not approved, according to the Independent Balkan News Agency. This warning comes from the Alliance for Albanians, which has three seats in parliament and which enabled the formation of the government led by the social democrat MP, Zoran Zaev.

Talks with EU on key reforms, trials of politicians and the likely raising of new charges against former officials will make for a packed agenda in Macedonia this week.

With a June 30 deadline to press charges - which is unlikely to be prolonged by Macedonia's parliament - the special prosecution, SJO - tasked with probing high-level crime - says it will try to wrap up as manyinvestigations as it can by then.