(VOVworld) - Macedonia's political leaders reached a final agreement early Wednesday resolving a severe political crisis that has roiled the small Balkan country for months.

The oppositions demonstrated to ask the Prime Minister to resign (Photo: AFP)

The agreement reached after a 12-hour negotiation mediated by European Union Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn in the capital, Skopje. Under the agreement, early elections will be held on April 24 next year and conservative Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski will step down by the end of this year. The Social Democrats, Macedonia’s main opposition party, will return to parliament in September after a long boycott to protest alleged election fraud. In October, a Minister of the Interior will be chosen from opposition party candidates.