Prime Minister of North Macedonia Zoran Zayev Announcing his resignation due to poor results in a local vote last monthAccording to media reports on Wednesday (November 10), he will remain in office until the political situation stabilizes.
Zaev’s ruling party SDSM party made this decision on Tuesday night in response to a motion of no confidence in the government by the opposition party led by the center-right VMRO-DPMNE.
VMRO-DPMNE stated that it and other opposition parties won 61 votes in the 120-seat parliament, which caused the government to step down.
However, media reports said that this small majority is far from certain.
Zayev told the media that he will respect the party’s decision.
Kanal 5 TV station quoted him as saying: “I hope that the democratic majority will stabilize, especially the majority supporting the European Union and supporting a multi-ethnic society.”
Zayev also resigned as leader of the SDSM due to his defeat in the election of mayors in cities and towns including the capital Skopje. He once said that the ruling coalition can elect a new prime minister without the need for a new general election.
But he did not formally submit his resignation to Parliament.
His Social Democratic-led coalition led VMRO-DPMNE by a narrow margin in last year’s parliamentary elections.
Zayev became prime minister for the first time in 2017 and put the country on the path of an EU member state.
According to the so-called Prespa Agreement signed by Zayev and former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in 2018, Macedonia was renamed North Macedonia.
Now that Kyriakos Misotakis replaced Tsipras, the Greek Parliament continues to postpone the passage of the three memorandums signed between Greece and North Macedonia as part of the Prespa agreement.
Hristijan Mickovski, the leader of VMRO-DPMNE, stated that although he recognizes the Prespa agreement, he will never use the country’s new name (North Macedonia).
