During a meeting on Monday evening, VMRO-DPMNE President Hristijan Mickoski and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev agreed that the Special Prosecutor’s Office can’t continue to operate the way it did until now, Republika has learnt.

Party sources inform that some progress was made between the two parties, as they debate the fate of the openly partisan prosecutorial unit which helped Zaev assume power in Macedonia and rename the country. Zaev insisted that the SPO is rolled into the permanent state prosecutor’s service with the same personnel it has now, while the opposition insists that the prosecutors have completely betrayed the public trust put in them.

It was agreed that the SPO will not continue to function in the form it did so far. It was also agreed in principle that the opposition will propose a new Public Prosecutor, and what remains is to determine the timeframe in which this can be arranged, sources told Republika.

Whether Zaev’s Government will manage to reach agreement with the opposition on the issue of the SPO may affect the expected opening of EU accession talks.