Macedonian lawmakers debate confidence motion against govt
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Macedonia's parliament has begun debating a no-confidence motion by the conservative opposition, which argues that the country's 11-month-old Social Democrat government has failed to control corruption or halt economic stagnation.
The motion by the VMRO-DPMNE party has little chance of being approved in the vote late Wednesday by the 120-member parliament, where it controls 53 seats together with political allies.
Struggling with an $11 billion economy after a decade of flat growth, Macedonia has been rattled by successive political crises, marked by intense rivalry between the conservatives and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats.
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Zaev is trying to resolve a long-standing dispute with neighbor Greece over the former Yugoslav republic's name. Negotiations resume Thursday when the foreign ministers of the two countries meet at the lakeside resort of Ohrid.