North Macedonia government faces no confidence vote

SKOPJE, Republic of North Macedonia: North Macedonia’s lawmakers are to vote Thursday on a no confidence motion filed by the opposition against Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s government, which has been weakened by poor results in municipal elections.

If Zaev loses the vote, which is uncertain, the Balkan nation’s centre-right opposition said they would try to form a new government before heading to an early election.

Both Zaev’s ruling coalition and the opposition claim to have a razor-thin parliamentary majority.

In late October, the prime minister pledged to resign, citing poor results of his Social Democrats (SDSM) in municipal elections.

The announcement came after months of sliding popularity as he struggled to keep the country’s pandemic-hit economy on track amid stalled talks over possible accession to the European Union.

The move came as a surprise and his political allies have been asking him to reconsider.

Zaev then “indefinitely” postponed his resignation “to assure the political stability and European perspective” of the country, the SDSM said late Tuesday.

Meanwhile the opposition, led by the VMRO-DPMNE party, sought the no confidence vote saying it had secured 61 votes in the 120-seat for the move.

VMRO-DPMNE head Hristijan Mickoscki had vowed to try to form a new government.

“If this goal is not reached then early parliamentary elections is the only option,” he said.

Zaev, elected prime minister in 2017, is best known for the tough deal he struck with Athens to add the geographical qualifier “North” to the country’s official name to distinguish it from the Greek province of Macedonia.

The change enabled joining NATO and was a precondition for paving the way for the country’s possible EU membership.

Skopje has since faced threats from Bulgaria to block the beginning of talks, with Sofia disputing the origin of the Macedonian language, calling it a Bulgarian dialect.