Elections in North Macedonia

Today, the opponents of the French proposal to start EU membership negotiations for the Republic of Macedonia will organize blockades in several key places in the country, reported a BGNES.

Today, the opponents of the French proposal to start EU membership negotiations for the Republic of Macedonia will organize blockades in several key places in the country, reported a BGNES.

North Macedonian police said they arrested a person who held a handgun and fired shots in the air at Thursday night's protest against the acceptance of a French proposal aimed at unclogging North Macedonia's stalled EU accession talks.

The leader of North Macedona's main opposition party, VMRO DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski, joined the celebrations marking Viktor Orban's victory in Sunday's Hungarian elections at Orban's Fidesz party HQ in Budapest.

No Honeymoon

North Macedonia's new PM, Dimitar Kovacevski [C] surrounded by his government ministers. Photo: EPA/EFE-GEORGI LICOVSKI

Dimitar Kovacevski has not even celebrated a month in office as Prime Minister, yet he is already faced with a fight to stave off an attempt by the opposition VMRO-DPMNE to force an early election.

Dimitar Kovacevski, who is the current deputy Finance Minister in Zoran Zaev's government, won more than 37,000 of just over 44,000 votes in internal Social Democratic Party leadership elections on Sunday, leaving the other two candidates, Frosina Remenski and Jovan Despotovski, far behind.

This was announced by the spokesperson of SDSM Bogdana Kuzevska and specified that the procedure for election of a new chairman of SDSM starts immediately. This will happen on December 12. Candidates for Zaev's post have 7 days to run. The leader of SDSM is elected by direct vote of all members of SDSM.

North Macedonia's Social Democratic PM Zoran Zaev late Tuesday postponed his announced resignation indefinitely, to try to sustain the current fragile majority in parliament and get the country out of its political crisis.

A decision was made today to postpone both resignations. We neither debated nor decided on them. When I resigned on 31 October, I said that I would help maintain the parliamentary majority and work to increase it if possible. Such is the responsibility to the state and the people. It makes perfect sense to work on this process.

North Macedonia's main opposition VMRO DPMNE party on Monday filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, sticking to its promise to do so unless Zaev resigned by the 2.30pm ultimatum it gave him.

The MP and VMRO DPMNE vice-president Aleksandar Nikolovski confirmed this at a press conference in Skopje.

Opposition leader Hirstijan Mickoski's right-wing VMRO DPMNE party, their Albanian coalition partners Alliance for Albanians and Alternative, alongside the small opposition Levica party, and the ethnic Albanian BESA party, who has just defected from the current government ranks, came together to form a new majority in North Macedonia's parliament.