- With Thursday’s victory over South Korea of 32:31, the Macedonian men’s handball team won 11th place at the World Handball Championship held in Croatia. This is the biggest success of the Macedonian men’s handball team. Kire Lazarov scored a total of 92 goals in this championship, thus becoming the first player ever to score more than 90 goals at a world championship.

The candidates at the upcoming presidential and local elections will not be allowed to appear in shows that are directly or indirectly related to the election process until the start of the official election campaign. Participation in shows that are not related to the elections but could influence the election process is also forbidden. Interviews with the possible candidates and representatives of political parties are not allowed to be held on the news. Only views of independent experts can be used until the start of the election campaign, while information related to the activities of the political parties can be aired only on the news. This is part of the regulations introduced by the Broadcasting Council with the aim of preventing the electronic media from violating the Election Code.

BDI nominated Agron Buxhaku, PDSH nominated Mirushe Hoxha, while PPD proposed Nevzat Halili as their presidential candidates. New Democracy Chairman Imer Selmani was the first politician from the Albanian political bloc to announce his candidacy for president, and he has already collected the necessary 10,000 signatures.

 

Slovenia supports Macedonia in its EU integration process, Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor stresses in Ljubljana following meeting with Macedonian Prime Minister Gruevski. Gruevski expressed hope that EU and member-states of Schengen zone will support liberalization of visa regime with Macedonia. Honorary Consulate of Republic of Macedonia was also opened in Kranj within frames of this visit.

Before the start of the party convention, SDSM said Professor Dr. Ljubomir Frckovski was a joint presidential candidate of SDSM and NSDP. Both parties are going to support Tito Petkovski in the race for mayor of Skopje.

Gjorgje Ivanov is VMRO-DPMNE’s candidate for president of the state. Ivanov won the votes of 1,016 VMRO-DPMNE delegates at the party convention on Sunday, while his opponent Todor Petrov won 91 votes.

“I can see that something is changing in this country. This indicates that hope, faith, and optimism are entering the arena. Thus, we will need harmony and unification in the times that are coming, as well as a president who will unite us,” Ivanov stated in his first address as presidential candidate, expressing gratitude to the VMRO-DPMNE delegates for their great support and trust in him. He stressed that his campaign would be just like him – sincere and fair.

SDSM is expected to select its presidential candidate at the party convention that will be held on Monday evening. 

Macedonia should send a strong message to the world that it is not a country of spiked clubs, wars, and archaic heroes, but a multiethnic and democratic country that aspires to integrate in EU and NATO, Ambassador Nano Ruzin stressed on Thursday at his promotion as LDP’s candidate for president of Macedonia. He noted that he made the decision to run for president after renowned diplomat Srgjan Kerim decided not to run at the elections. Ruzin expects fair and democratic elections at which all candidates will be respected, and he called on all citizens to support his candidacy, emphasizing that Macedonia must modernize.

- International Court of Justice in The Hague decides on 20 January that Macedonia has until 20 July year 2009 to prepare and submit written Memorandum in lawsuit filed against Greece for breach of Interim Accord. Greece has until 20 January year 2010 to prepare and submit its response to this Memorandum.

President Crvenkovski pays three-day visit to Italy, where he met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Wednesday. Italy remains Macedonia’s friend and supporter in its Euro-Atlantic integration and it hopes that visa regime with EU will be liberalized soon, that Macedonia will start negotiations for membership in EU, and that it will complete process for accession to NATO, Italian President Napolitano stressed. He also urged both Macedonia and Greece to demonstrate moderation for speedier resolution of name dispute.

Srgjan Kerim is not going to run for president. The former Chairman of the 62nd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations and Director for Southeast Europe of the media company WAZ said at a press conference that he did not want to be part of political bargaining and that circumstances in Macedonia were not yet mature for a political consensus over an above-party figure to race for the presidential post.

The mobile police unit “Alfa” was attacked with bombs during their search of houses in the Skopje suburb of Cair late Tuesday evening. Fortunately, the bombs did not explode and no one was injured. The attackers were arrested, the Interior Ministry informed.

There is big untapped potential for more intensive political, economic, and other kind of cooperation between Macedonia and India, Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki and Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee assessed at their meeting in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday. Milososki officially opened the Macedonian Embassy in New Delhi, stressing, “This embassy will create an additional basis for intensification of the relations with the most numerous democracy in the world”, and he expressed hope that India would open an embassy in Skopje soon. Foreign Minister Milososki also thanked India for its decision to use Macedonia’s constitutional name in the bilateral relations.

Macedonia is not prepared to give in to Greece in the name dispute, Zagreb daily Vecernji List reports, citing Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU Integration Ivica Bocevski from Brussels. Bocevski rejected Greece's call to the Macedonians to choose between Upper Macedonia and North Macedonia as the name of their country so as to erase all suspicion that Macedonia has territorial claims against the Greek province Macedonia.

At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the first meeting of the President of the Court, Rosalin Higins, and the representatives of Macedonia and Greece took place on Monday. Macedonia was represented by Ambassador Nikola Dimitrov and Greece by Greek Ambassador to the Netherlands Konstantinos Ioannis Rallis.

Ohrid expects over 20,000 people from Macedonia and abroad to attend the great spectacle of throwing a cross in Lake Ohrid on 19 January on the occasion of the holiday of Epiphany. Hundreds of locals are expected to dive into Lake Ohrid in search of the cross.

SDSM held a press conference on Tuesday at which it publicly proposed to VMRO-DPMNE that these two parties support a joint above-party candidate, Srgjan Kerim. SDSM Acting Chairman Zoran Zaev explained that this would prevent accusations among the parties on rigging and boycott of the presidential election. He said that this would help ensure that the presidential elections are successful, noting that if an agreement is reached between these two parties, the conditions set by NATO and the EU would be fulfilled. Zaev added that he expects VMRO-DPMNE and Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski to consider this proposal seriously and to state their position as soon as possible.

President Branko Crvenkovski organized a New Year reception for the diplomatic corps in Macedonia on Monday. In his address before the ambassadors, the president said that Macedonia has internal capacity to make the necessary step forward and secure the position that it deserves in the international community, without losing its dignity. Crvenkovski believes that the authorities will demonstrate clear political will for the upcoming presidential and local elections to be held in a fair and democratic atmosphere. He reminded that this is one of the conditions for the country to move forward in the EU integration process, as well as a chance for the state to receive a date for start of the negotiations for membership in the EU.

- The International Crisis Group suggests that Macedonia should accept the adjective northern to be part of its name and that Greece should accept the Macedonian identity and language. The International Crisis Group believes that the Greek-Macedonian dispute threatens the main strategy of NATO and the EU for stabilization of the region and that it is outrageous that this strategy should fall prey to a dispute involving a NATO and an EU member state.

The presidential and local elections will be held on 22 March, Assembly Chairman Trajko Veljanoski informed. “These elections are very important for us, as citizens. Holding of fair and democratic elections, as the highest European standard, is most important for Macedonia’s further integration in the European Union,” Veljanoski stated.

He appealed to all political parties and independent candidates to commit themselves to holding maximally democratic elections, and he called on all state institutions involved in the election process to carry out their tasks responsibly.

- Political parties will have to start gathering 10,000 signatures on 20 January for determining their presidential candidates. Only governing VMRO-DPMNE meets the legal condition for declaring its candidate without going through this procedure.

There will be no electronic voting at the upcoming presidential and local elections, the leaders of the four biggest parliamentary parties agreed at the meeting today, the media report. This meeting, which was held at the initiative of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, was attended by BDI leader Ali Ahmeti, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev, and PDSH Chairman Menduh Thaci, as well as Justice Minister Mihajlo Manevski and Information Society Minister Ivo Ivanovski. The prime minister informed that he accepted SDSM’s suggestion that there be no electronic voting at these elections and he announced that the party leaders stressed 22 March as the best date for the elections.

Macedonia was hit Thursday (8 January) by an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale, said the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center. The epicenter of the earthquake, felt across the country, was near Gostivar in Macedonia's northwest. There are no reports of any material damage or casualties.

Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski invited the leaders of the three biggest parliamentary parties, SDSM's Zoran Zaev, BDI's Ali Ahmeti, and PDSH's Menduh Thaci, to a meeting on Friday. The main topics discussed at this meeting will be the upcoming elections and further improvement of the election legislation and the democratic procedures in the implementation of the elections, as issues that are of great importance to Macedonia's EU perspective.

“Greece’s conduct is a really bad precedent, which could become a sort of rule in the future, and the EU should be especially concerned about this. Its system of governing and remaining silent to such onslaught of blockades, vetoes, and obstructions reminds of some different times.

- The edition "130 Volumes of Macedonian Literature" was promoted on Saturday at the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts by academician Gjorgji Stardelov.

The overall impression is that year 2009 will be a difficult year for Macedonia as the state will have to face big challenges, primarily due to the global economic crisis. Despite this, Macedonia expects to make progress on its path to EU integration, and membership in EU and NATO remains the state’s highest priority.

With 64 votes in favor, the Parliament adopted the budget 2009 on Monday. The opposition believes the Government will not succeed in realizing the projected revenues and denounce the budget for not having taken into consideration the effects of the global financial crisis. The governing majority, on the other hand, trusts that the opposition is unnecessarily spreading fear and that the projected public investments would cushion the effects of the recession.

Bulgaria could turn into a second Greece for Macedonia by conditioning its accession to NATO and the EU. Following the example of Macedonia’s southern neighbor, Sofia is also expected to lay down numerous demands and conditions to Macedonia under the pretext of “good neighborly relations”, by taking advantage of its right to a veto in NATO and the EU, well-informed sources assessed, Nova Makedonija writes.