Skopje, 30 November 2023 (MIA) - The Social-Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) has said the meeting of party leader Dimitar Kovachevski with leaders of parliamentary parties will take place on Monday at noon.

"We regret disturbing Hristijan Mickoski's agenda, which as VMRO-DPMNE has confirmed, is two hours long. The Monday meeting will begin at noon," SDSM said in a press release.

The press release comes after VMRO-DPMNE said earlier it learned about the meeting from the media and demanded for it to be held after 11 am on Monday because the VMRO-DPMNE leader has classes with students at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering where he works as a full-time professor.

"We learned from the media that Prime Minister Kovachevski is scheduling a leaders' meeting for Monday, related to the elections. Such communication through the media on such important issues is his choice. A leaders' meeting is certainly acceptable for Monday, at which we expect to finally discuss specifying a date for elections, accepting the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations, as well as the offer to scrap the caretaker government, in exchange for not having a caretaker prime minister from DUI," VMRO-DPMNE said.

Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski told Wednesday a joint press conference with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, that the invitation for a meeting of leaders of parliamentary parties and the Parliament Speaker will be extended today.

"The meeting will be scheduled for Monday and will tackle North Macedonia's Euro-integration, the regular parliamentary and presidential elections and the Electoral Code amendments in line with the OSCE/ODIHR recommendations," said PM Kovachevski.

According to announcements, parliamentary and presidential elections in May are an option acceptable for all parties, with the first round of the presidential polls to take place two weeks earlier.

Photo: MIA archive