Zaev government

In North Macedonia's parliament on Monday, MP Kastriot Rexhepi said his absence from last Thursday's session, which aborted a planned vote of no confidence in the government had been his own decision. He had not been "kidnapped", as frustrated opposition lawmakers suggested. He had simply wanted to avoid unwarranted publicity.

Some 2,000 protesters staged an opposition rally in North Macedonia late Thursday to demand the resignation of the country's Social Democrat prime minister, Zoran Zaev.

Dull Race

Serbia is heading into a Parliamentary election on June 21, yet there has rarely been less excitement or political fervour around it. Perhaps hardly surprising given that there is even less doubt than usual as to who the winner will be, or indeed prospect for any change.

Moment of Truth

Zoran Zaev, until recently the Prime Minister of North Macedonia and leader of the ruling SDSM, faces his moment of truth on April 12th as Macedonian voters are set to go to the polls to pass judgement on his government. While having achieved a great deal in the foreign policy realm, his government has disappointed expectations on the domestic front.

In the ongoing court case that has gripped North Macedonia, codenamed Extortion, Prosecutor Ivana Trajceva on Tuesday presented messages that the main suspect, the showman-turned-businessman Bojan Jovanovski, sent to the Prime Minister, among other people, found in his seized electronic devices.

Heating Up

Parliament in North Macedonia approved a reshuffle of five ministers on Thursday night, which came after the ruling coalition, headed by Zoran Zaev's Social Democrats, received a wake-up call in recent presidential elections. In the vote, 65 of 120 MPs backed the reshuffle with 25 opposition MPs voting against.

"The Prespes Deal is unconstitutional, former Defense Minister and Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos claimed in an interview to SKAI TV.

Kammenos, who bolted the government alliance earlier this month over his objections to the deal, added that the agreement coming to Parliament for ratification next week has nothing to do with what was signed, because it has four amendments.

The new government alliance between the Social Democratic Union and ethnic Albanian political parties in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) clinched a landslide majority in last Sunday's local elections, and especially in the capital, Skopje, which has a single municipal unit of around 800,000 citizens.