Zoran Zaev

Three possible options loom over North Macedonia's immediate political future after Prime Minister Zoran Zaev resigned on Sunday - the existing parliament majority led by the Social Democrats remaining in power with a new PM, a brand new opposition-led majority, or snap general elections.

In an address late on Sunday evening, Zoran Zaev said he is resigning from his position as North Macedonia's Prime Minister and as leader of the Social Democrats, after the party's defeat in the capital of Skopje and other important towns to the opposition right-wing VMRO DPMNE party during the election runoffs this weekend.

On the other hand, the independent candidate for the mayor of Skopje, Danela Arsovska, declared victory, and the leading Macedonian opposition party VMRO-DPMNE calls for early parliamentary elections.

The Prime Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia, Zoran Zaev, resigned last night after the poor performance of his SDSM party in the second round of local elections, world agencies reported.

He resigned due to the debacle in the second round of local elections.
"I take responsibility for the results of these elections and resign from the Prime Minister and the President of the SDSM," SDSM leader Zoran Zaev said tonight.

Local elections will be held today in the neighboring Republic of North Macedonia, a BGNES reported.

1,824,864 people have the right to vote. 301 candidates are running for mayor and 10,600 for municipal councilors. Twelve candidates are running for mayor of the capital, Skopje. The second round of elections will take place on October 31.

A no-confidence vote in the Romanian parliament overthrew the government of Prime Minister Florin Katsu, which took power in December 2020. The decision of the Social Democratic Party was supported by 281 MPs. The crisis in Romania began in September, when the coalition partner of the National Liberals - the USR-PLUS Alliance, stepped down from government.

Immediate decisions cannot be made to resolve the dispute between Bulgaria and the Republic of North Macedonia, because Bulgaria is facing parliamentary and presidential elections. This was stated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel after the end of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Slovenia.

European leaders organised two meetings between Bulgaria's President Rumen Radev and North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev within a few hours in Brdo, on Wednesday, the Bulgarian presidency has announced.

Despite initial promises of a swift investigation into the deadly fire in a modular hospital in Tetovo on September 8 that claimed the lives of 14 COVID-19 patients, there is still no new official information about the causes of the tragedy.