SKOPJE, Macedonia
Opposition parties in Macedonia continue to call for the resignation of the government, holding another rally in the capital Skopje Sunday.
Protesters continued to express anger at Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and his administration’s alleged weak policies, and an ailing economy.
Macedonia has witnessed several protests over the last week calling for Gruevski to step down.
Zoran Zaev, leader of opposition and chairman of Social Democratic Union of Macedonia, told chanting crowds that the only path forward for the country was the path towards the European Union.
Speaking at the rally titled "For Macedonia", Zaev said that the demonstrations had brought together people from various ethnicities, faiths and political ideologies. "There is only one goal, and that is ensuring the fall of the Nikola Gruevski regime," he added.
On Tuesday, interior and transport ministers and the country's intelligence chief -- all considered close allies of Gruevski – resigned from their posts.
The three officials, which had been in office since Gruevski came to power in 2006, were involved in alleged wiretapping scandals made public by the Macedonian opposition.
Zaev has divulged since February scores of recordings, claiming that Prime Minister Gruevski and the intelligence chief Saso Mijalkov had ordered the illegal surveillance of up to 20,000 people, including ministers and journalists.
The resignations came after 22 people, including eight police officers, were killed during last weekend’s clashes between security forces and an armed group in the city of Kumanovo, near the Kosovo border, mainly inhabited by ethnic Albanians.
Ethnic tensions are regular in the multi-ethnic country, where about a quarter of the population of 2.1 million is ethnic Albanian.
In 2001, Macedonians and Albanians fought an armed conflict, which came to an end after the signing of the Ohrid Agreement, which gave Albanians more political rights. But, Albanians have claimed that the agreement had not been implemented.
Macedonia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
