(Transcript from SBS World News Radio)
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's embattled Prime Minister has rallied tens of thousands of supporters in a show of force in the country's capital.
It comes as a day after thousands of opposition demonstrators marched through the city demanding he resign.
Santilla Chingaipe has the details.
(Click on the audio tab above to hear the full report)
Some 30,000 supporters of conservative Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski gathered in Skopje.
Mr Gruevski's supporters marched towards the parliament waving Macedonia's red and yellow flag and chanting support for him and the country.
The crowd was about the same size as Sunday's opposition rally calling for the PM to quit.
Since February, he has faced embarrassing revelations against him and his ministers contained in taped conversations.
25-year-old activist Viktor Mitevski explains.
"The opposition leader, Mr Zoran Zaev, almost 4 months ago, some time in February, started publishing wiretapping phone conversations of not only political leaders, but also journalists, political activists and those wire tappings, as he claims, are actually done by the secret service of Macedonia and he has said that over 20,000 people have been wire tapped. So what does that have to do with the situation currently? Well, most of those tapped conversations which were presented to the Macedonian public, were conversations between the current collaborators of current Prime Minister of Macedonia, Mr Gruevski."
Mr Gruevski has not disputed that the voices on the tapes are genuine.
But he says that a foreign spy service made the recordings and that the audio has been doctored.
Addressing his supporters in Skopje, he's denounced calls for him to step down.
(Translated) "Who has been demanding my resignation? People who would like to leave Macedonia to them, to reign without the people's will? But to these people - this energy, this power - is the best answer to them"
The crisis rocking Mr Gruevski's nine-year conservative rule is the worst since Macedonia narrowly avoided an all out civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001.
Since that time, critics say Mr Gruevski has tilted to the right, stoking nationalism and monopolising power in coalition with a party of ethnic Albanian former guerrillas.
However, he's defended his leadership.
(Translated) "Macedonia is a European state and will have the place that it deserves. We have a team, we have a vision, we have people, we have smart people, which make right decisions. That's why Macedonia is strong. Long live Macedonia."
Activist Viktor Mitevski says the current division in the country is unprecedented.
"Macedonia is a multi-ethnic country which went through an armed conflict in 2001 and whenever you say divided, people think that the division is based on ethnicity, but unfortunately, the past nine years that division has been spread, not by ethnic groups, but by supporters of the government and those that don't support the current government."
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