After the conclusion of the presidential elections, representatives of the Macedonian Government and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party will meet tomorrow to continue their talks about the controversial Special Prosecutor’s Office (SPO).

The SPO was created in 2015, under international pressure, and since then the institution has initiated dozens of criminal cases, exclusively against officials of the VMRO-DPMNE party. This contributed to the toppling of VMRO from power and helped SDSM take over the Government.
SPO’s mandate expired and it can’t initiate new charges, but Prime Minister Zoran Zaev is eager to have it extended, and so are some of the EU officials, who are conditioning their positive recommendation for Macedonia to open EU accession talks with a new law on state prosecutors which would make this partisan institution permanent.

VMRO demands significant changes to both the partisan personnel hired in the SPO and the way the institution operates, including having corruption investigations against the current Government as well, not just against the opposition. The tug of war over the abuse of the judiciary for political fights has meant that talks progress slowly and Zaev announced that if they continue to fail, party leaders will take over from the two legal teams.