Sunday 31st October 2021
Loss in local elections
North Macedonia’s head of government resigns
Zoran Zaev is considered a pro-Western reformer. But that does not help the party of the Prime Minister of North Macedonia to victory in the national local elections. Zaev draws the consequences. Observers see other possible consequences.
North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev resigned on the evening after a defeat in the national local elections. The politician, who is considered a pro-Western reformer, resigned his posts as head of government and as chairman of the social democratic party SDSM, reported the state news agency MIA. “I take full responsibility for the election defeat,” said Zaev accordingly.
The looming defeat of the SDSM in the capital Skopje was considered particularly serious. In this case, Zaev had already announced his resignation before the vote. In Skopje, the opposition candidate for the mayor’s office, Danela Arsovska, won the runoff election with 55.85 percent of the vote, ahead of the previous incumbent Petre Sigelov from Zaev’s party, who got 40.60 percent. This was announced by the central election office after 60 percent of the votes were counted. Arsovska had run as a non-party with the support of the conservative opposition party VMRO-DPMNE.
Observers believed further political consequences were possible. The defeat in the election could also shake the narrow majority of Zaev’s coalition – through renegade parliamentarians, it said. Together with the co-ruling parties of the Albanian minority, Zaevs SDSM has only 62 out of 120 seats in parliament.