The Parliament of North Macedonia on Thursday (December 23rd) approved the resignation of Social Democratic Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, weakened by the municipal defeat in October but whose party is however expected to assemble a new coalition and form a government.
Read alsoNorth Macedonian Prime Minister Zaev announces his resignation
Immediately after the defeat in the municipal elections, especially in Skopje, the capital of the Balkan country, Zoran Zaev announced his resignation, but he waited two months to present it formally on Wednesday. The one who has ruled the country since 2017, leading him to NATO in 2020, after an agreement with Athens on the change of the name of Macedonia, now North Macedonia, had already seen his popularity crumble because of the reluctance of the European Union to open accession negotiations with its country. “It would be politically irresponsible and unjustified in front of my people and my country to continue to lead the government on its Euro-Atlantic pathZoran Zaev wrote in his resignation letter.
However, the opposition gathered around the VMRO-DPMNE (conservatives) failed in November with its motion of censure against the outgoing government. She insisted on early elections. Zoran Zaev would even have taken advantage of this period to strengthen the ruling coalition, even if he hands over to one of his relatives, Dimitar Kovacevski, Deputy Minister of Finance, recently elected president of the SDSM, the party that Zoran Zaev has since led. 2013.
Read alsoWhy Bulgaria does not want North Macedonia to join the European Union
The country’s president, Stevo Pendarovski, now has ten days to nominate the new prime minister, who in turn will have twenty days to form a cabinet and put it to the vote. The agreement concluded in 2018 with Athens should in principle also have opened the door for Macedonia to negotiations for EU membership. But these have not yet started, Skopje having encountered reluctance from Bulgaria with which North Macedonia has a dispute over the origins of the Macedonian language. Sofia considers it to be a Bulgarian dialect.