After a month-long impasse, the committee of inquiry into the parliamentary incident of 24 December resumed operations Tuesday. Ilija Dimovski and Blagorodna Dulik from VMRO-DPMNE, Renata Deskovska and Ljubomir Frckoski from SDSM, together with Nikola Gruevski and Zoran Zaev, leaders of VMRO-DPMNE and SDSM respectively, as well as Radmila Sekerinska, vice president of SDSM, and Martin Protogjer, Gruevski’s Chief of Staff, met at the Club of MPs and discussed the possible ways of resolving the political gridlock threatening to complicate further Macedonia’s European integration. The meeting that lasted for four hours was also attended by chairman Borce Davitkovski, who has recently resigned, and by the two foreign observers.

Although the meeting began in a laidback atmosphere, tension rose over time resulting in frequent breaks during which Gruevski and Zaev consulted their associates, Dnevnik reports.

Both Gruevski and Zaev entered the meeting as optimists that a compromise would be reached on time.