North Macedonia

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.

Currently, our country is in negotiations with Bulgaria, which are based on European values and respect all adopted resolutions. This was said by the newly elected leader of the ruling Social Democratic Union in RN Macedonia, Dimitar Kovachevski, during his first public statement. He replaces Zoran Zaev, who has held the post since 2013, BGNES reported.

Albania, Montenegro and North Macedonia are not likely to be affected economically by a ban on food imports imposed by Belarus, which starts on January 1.

Although not part of the EU, they have joined recent increased EU and Western sanctions on Belarus, imposed over the migrant crisis at the Polish border, for which Minsk is blamed.

The issue of several ethnically charged court cases that has dogged multi-ethnic North Macedonia for years reemerged on Sunday, when the Prime Minister and Social Democratic leader, Zoran Zaev, signed a coalition deal with a small ethnic Albanian party to boost the government's slim majority.

North Macedonia's fragile coalition government can now breathe a bit easier with the support of 64 MPs in the 120-seat parliament, following an agreemeent clinched with the four MPs of the Alternative party.

The Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader, Zoran Zaev, and the head of Alternative, Aftim Gashi, signed the deal on Saturday.

Hundreds of mourners gathered at a rural cemetery in Morani in North Macedonia in the cold rain on Friday to bury 10 locals, including eight students who were among the 45 killed in a bus crash in Bulgaria, Reuters reported

Bulgaria's blockade on North Macedonia's EU progress spelled big trouble for Zoran Zaev, as did mismanagement of a slew of domestic issues, from vaccination to wildfires.

Macedonian Deputy Prime Minister Artan Grubi claims that in December the Republic of North Macedonia (RNM) will receive positive signals for the start of negotiations for accession to the European Union (EU).

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.

Today is a strange day. A day marked by two serious tragedies - last night's incident in the Varna village of Royak, where nine Bulgarian citizens died. The tragedy is still being investigated. Investigative bodies must do their job. A few hours later, a new tragedy marked today.