Too Soon for Snap Polls, Macedonian PM Says

Appearing with half of his ministers, Gruevski gave an interview for the A1 TV on Monday evening.

Most employees from the TV, which is critical of the government, have been protesting in front of the government building since last week, accusing Gruevski of being behind a court decision to freeze the station's account.

The controversy over A1, which has raised the issue of media freedom in Macedonia, was the immediate reason for the opposition decision to leave parliament. Lead by the Social Democrats, the opposition has called for snap polls.

“I see that the parliament speaker [Trajko Veljanovski] is making an effort to bring the opposition back to parliament, so I am willing to give him space to try,” the prime minister said. “If his efforts do not bear fruit, our party will convene and then decide whether or not to opt for early elections.”

The Social Democrats and other smaller parties refused Veljanovski’s call to attend Tuesday’s extraordinary parliament session dedicated to A1 and media freedom, calling it a “step too late” and an “attempt to fake real pluralism”.

In his interview with A1 on Monday, the prime minister insisted that he had no influence over the court’s decision to freeze the station's account, a move which could force the outlet to shut down.

“We do not want to see A1 closed but that is not within our power to decide. The ones who managed the TV and are responsible for bringing it into such a condition should answer for that,” the PM said.

Previously, the country’s Journalist’s associations urged the authorities to allow the TV to continue working despite the investigation against its owner, Velija Ramkovski, who is spending his second month in detention under suspicion of large scale financial crime.

EU ambassador Erwan Fouere and US ambassador Fhillip Reeker have also expressed concern over the possible shutting down of A1, which is the most popular TV station in the country and was the first private national television to go on air in the country when it began broadcasting in 1993.

“There has been mixing of theses in the case of A1,” Gruevski said.

“We see the A1 protest as a form of pressure on the government to intervene in the work of the court to spare the TV. I have no jurisdiction to do such a thing and believe me I will not.”

The opposition boycott leaves Gruevski’s ruling VMRO DPMNE party alone in the parliament with its junior partner, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration.

Although the majority has enough legislators to formally function, some local analysts question its future credibility without the opposition.

Some warn of an escalating crisis that could radicalise politics in the country and suggest early elections may be a way out.

The country’s last general elections were in 2008. Various opinion polls show that support for the ruling VMRO DPMNE, though diminishing, is still considerably higher than support for the opposition.