Insurgency in Macedonia

North Macedonia's parliament on Sunday approved a caretaker government with a mandate to organize a general election in May.

The government of the small Balkan country of 1.8 million people will be headed by the country's first-ever ethnic Albanian prime minister, current parliament speaker Talat Xhaferi, 61.

In a historic turn of events, North Macedonia is set to have its first-ever Albanian prime minister. Today, the parliament will convene for an extraordinary meeting to vote on the caretaker government responsible for organizing the upcoming spring elections in the country.

However, Mickoski's accusation lost legitimacy when it turned out that the gunman, the angry owner of a hotel, was a supporter of the Alliance of Albanians, a partner party of his own VMRO-DPMNE.

Not a rally but a funeral

Unusual funeral procession in Tetovo. Photo: Twitter

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.

Former MP Mersel Biljali, a law and political science professor, said that despite delays in implementing the peace deal over the years, it has helped the country to ease ethnic tensions and avoid greater bloodshed.

"It sobered us, directed us towards living with one another, building a joint future together, understanding each other a bit better, and building trust," Biljali said.

Although five potential war crimes cases were initially investigated by the North Macedonia's authorities in 2002, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, ICTY, then took over the cases.