The meeting of the leaders of the political parties with President Gjorge Ivanov Monday produced no agreement for getting out of the political crisis, sources from opposition SDSM said. The four-hour meeting failed to bridge the differences between the government and the opposition, which is boycotting the Parliament.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski told SDSM leader Crvenkovski that they would negotiate over SDSM’s demands after their MPs returned to Parliament. This was the message that the leader of VMRO-DPMNE delivered at the leaders’ meeting in President Ivanov’s office, at which the political parties tried to find a way out of the political crisis created after SDSM, NSDP, NA, LP and DR decided to step out of Parliament.

According to unconfirmed information, VMRO-DPMNE leader Gruevski said at the meeting that the condition for a dialogue set by Crvenkovski – to let Velija Ramkovski’s media work – was illegitimate because that was up to the court to decide. In his view, considering how serious the crimes Ramkovski is suspected of are, his media cannot be regarded as independent. According to the prime minister, Crvenkovski and SDSM are doing this with the intention of creating a crisis and their demands are compiled in a way to avoid early elections.

The meeting was attended also by Parliament Speaker Trajko Veljanoski, who reiterated that the Parliament should not be held hostage by the parties.

SDSM president Branko Crvenkovski presented the demands that the central committee of the party adopted at its meeting Saturday. In the largest opposition party, the Monday meeting was seen as “theater and farce”.

According to party sources, Crvenkovski clearly stressed that a precondition for them to even begin talking about returning to Parliament was for Gruevski and the Government to provide and guarantee conditions for normal functioning of all media, particularly A1, A2, Vreme, Spic and **** e Re.

SDSM insists on constitutional amendments whereby the justice minister would be removed from the Judicial Council, a law under which the campaigns financed by the central budget will be aired by all media, modifications to the election law with the assistance of the OSCE and ODIHR and establishing a parliamentary committee for revision of the election law.

LDP leader Jovan Manasijevski is said to have called for early elections immediately, i.e. on April 1 by the present election law, which he considers to be good. Crvenkovski asked the major parties to undertake to respect what they would agree on outside the Parliament so that no changes would occur in the course of the parliamentary procedure. After all these conditions are met, SDSM is prepared to return to the Parliament. The early elections remain to be a priority demand too, which, according to the opposition party, should be held when what has been agreed upon is realized.

Imer Selmani, leader of Demokracia e Re, voiced at the leaders’ meeting his demands about modifying the census law. His party wants the census to be taken in the summer, the construction of a church on Kale to stop and the Badinter principle of vote to be applied in the Judicial Council, the Constitutional Court and the Parliament when the budget is passed.