Macedonian Opposition Envisages Snap Polls

"Everything depends on how things will unfold in terms of our Euro-Atlantic integration. If it stays blocked, early elections will become inevitable,” he said.

Macedonia’s bid to enter NATO and EU is hampered by the Greek blockade over the unresolved bilateral “name” issue.

“Now we have an additional period until June [to solve the spat], which the European Commission gave us. It ends in less than four months," Crvenkovski warned.

In December Greece used the unresolved issue to block its neighbor from getting the desired date for start of its EU accession talks that the European Commission recommended. In 2008 Athens blocked Skopje from entering NATO over the same dispute.

Greece insists that Macedonia change its name, saying that it implies a territorial claim over Greece's own northern province, also called Macedonia. Skopje sees this as an insult and threat to its national dignity and identity.

The UN mediator in the name row, Matthew Nimetz, visited both countries last week in an effort to restart the talks. The EU and USA have called for a compromise be reached in the first half of this year.

Crvenkovski said that in June the questions related to Macedonia's EU and NATO perspective will be much clearer. If the name row is not resolved, he said the country could stay blocked for a longer period.

Last year Macedonia held early elections on the initiative of the ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE party.

Seen as a strong defender of the country’s name in the spat with Greece, Prime Minister and head of the VMRO DPMNE Nikola Gruevski snatched victory and strengthened his power in parliament.

Since the beginning the year, Gruevski and Crvenkovski have both been seen at many local events and ground breaking ceremonies across the country, which has led some observers to speculate that both parties are once again considering early elections.