Protesters vow to force out Macedonia PM as crisis deepens

Macedonia's opposition vowed to continue street protests after 20,000 people marched through the capital Skopje demanding that the country's embattled Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski step down.
With the small Balkan country divided by a deep political crisis -- and still in shock after last weekend's battle with ethnic Albanian gunmen in which 18 died -- Gruevski's supporters are to march today after yesterday's big show of force by the opposition.
"We will stay here in front of the government. Nikola Gruevski must resign," the leader of the main opposition SDSM party Zoran Zaev told the crowds drawn up in front of the government's neo-classical offices. "Until he goes we are not going to leave either."

Gruevski -- who only months ago seemed to have an unshakable grip on power -- is now under pressure to assemble as many supporters for his rally in the capital on Monday evening.
Waving Macedonian and Albanian flags, opposition protesters chanted "Resignation!" and "Victory! Victory!" The rival demonstrations come after a year-long stand-off between Gruevski and his centre-left opponents that has split the multi-ethnic country of two million people.
"Join us, for you, for your children, for free and prosperous Macedonia," Zaev urged the protesters, calling the ongoing political crisis "one of the most severe since Macedonia's independence."

"It is necessary to reach a political agreement for an interim government... That would create conditions for early free and fair parliamentary elections," Zaev said.

An opposition source told AFP that they plan to keep enough protesters in front of the prime minister's offices "to keep the pressure on the government."
But by yesterday evening only around 100 remained in tents around a small stage set up opposite the grandiose white edifice, one of several monumental landmarks built by Gruevski during his nine years in power.
"We are going to stay to the end, we are going to bring down the head of this government," said Lazar Popovski, 51, a shopkeeper from Kumanovo, the northern town that was the scene of last weekend's violence.
The bloody shootout between police and ethnic Albanian rebels, many of them from just across the border in Kosovo, was the worst in the former Yugoslav republic since a short 2001 conflict between the government and ethnic Albanians fighters, and raised fears of heightening ethnic tensions.