Macedonian vice ministers submit resignation

SKOPJE, Dec. 28 (Xinhua) -- Three vice ministers of the current Macedonian government and the state secretary of the Justice Ministry on Thursday submitted their resignation to Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

Arta Toci, vice minister of foreign affairs, Remzi Memedi, vice minister of transport, Elmi Aziri, vice minister of the Labor Ministry, and Zylfi Aditi, state secretary of the justice ministry, announced their resignation in a joint press conference.

The four officials belong to the "Alliance for Albanians" party chaired by Ziadin Sela, who announced a decision to withdraw his officials from the government late Wednesday.

The party officials told a joint conference Thursday that their resignation would be followed by the withdrawal of other eight officials.

The heads of two ruling parties -- Zaev of SDSM and Sela of Alliance for Albanians -- clashed over the post of minister of health.

Sela had requested Zaev to appoint one of his officials to this post but Zaev instead named one of his party officials Venko Filipce to replace Arben Taravari, who resigned after winning as mayor of Gostivar.

Sela told reporters there were no more reasons for him to stay in the ruling coalition and continue governing with Zaev as long as he his party had no political weight. Enditem