Ali Ahmeti

Over two decades, Ali Ahmeti's Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, has gone from marginal political player to indispensable factor in government.

Portals under the Tetova-sot media group. Illustration: BIRN

Party affiliate reaps rewards of weak system

Rami Mislimi works in the mainly ethnic Albanian Municipality of Tetovo and at the same time pushes his journalistic career through the portal tetovasot.com.

What no one imagined was that Ahmeti's DUI was promoting a profound conceptual and ideological redesign, in effect, becoming a green party.

Party with history of surprises

The head of DUI, Ali Ahmeti gives a speech during the commemoration of the killed NLA fighters on May 5, 2021. Photo DUI

Monday's agreement between Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, the leader of the ruling Social Democrats, and the opposition VMRO DPMNE party leader, Hristijan Mickoski, to postpone the nationwide census for six months from April to September due to the COVID-19 crisis has angered members of the ruling coalition as well as opposition parties.

North Macedonia's long-overdue national census, a key operation that the country has failed to carry out for 19 years due to ethnic and political interference, is already facing serious attempts to disrupt it.

The former partners in the last coalition government in North Macedonia, the Social Democrats, SDSM, of Zoran Zaev, and the Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, led by Ali Ahmeti, are engaged in substantial talks on a new government, amid speculation that talks might be stuck over the DUI's insistence on an ethnic Albanian prime minister.

The group of ethnic Albanians appeared in court as they have been granted a retrial by the North Macedonia judicial authorities.

The elected will be the first head of state after the change of name of our Southwest neighbor, reported NOVA TV. 

The Republic of Northern Macedonia officially launches the election campaign for the upcoming presidential elections.

The vice-president of Macedonia's main ruling Social Democratic Party, Petre Shilegov, on Wednesday confirmed that his parliamentary group has begun talks with its opposition rivals in parliament to persuade them to vote for the historic "name" agreement with Greece.

There was nothing unexpected about the referendum. It was clear that the government in Skopje would struggle to reach the 50 percent threshold to make the plebiscite. Also certain was that the yes vote would be in a strong lead.