Skopje - Macedonia's main opposition leader Zoran Zaev has been accused of trying to use blackmail to force the conservative prime minister and his government to resign.
Zaev faces allegations that he threatened conservative Premier Nikola Gruevski with the release of transcripts from potentially damaging telephone conversations unless he stepped down, which would lead to early elections.
"He told me... he had collected, in cooperation with certain foreign intelligence services, transcripts of telephone conversations of almost all the country's leaders," Gruevski told reporters on Saturday.
"I refuse to accept threats, blackmail and all those types of things," he added.
"A complaint has been lodged today (Saturday) against Zoran Zaev and several other people for espionage offences and violence against officials," Gruevski said.
The complaint was lodged by the government. No charges have yet been brought.
Police have arrested three suspects in the past three days, including former Macedonian intelligence chief Zoran Verushevski. Zaev is not in custody.
Zaev allegedly made his threats in September and November 2014 during meetings with Gruevski, who has been in power in the landlocked nation of two million since 2006.
The opposition leader's centre-left Social Democrats (SDSM) are boycotting parliament and allege fraud in last year's parliamentary elections that saw Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party win a majority.
Zaev had warned publicly that he intended to reveal information about the government that would have the impact of a "bomb."
Macedonia was granted EU candidate status in 2005, but has yet to obtain a date for a start of accession talks.
AFP
