Page 19 - SE Outlook Regions 2022

1.8 Politics - North Macedonia

North Macedonia is facing another year of political uncertainty after
Bulgaria again vetoed the start of EU accession talks and the ruling
Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) suffered a huge loss in
the October local elections, when most of the mayoral positions were
won by the opposition conservative VMRO-DPMNE.

Following the election defeat, SDSM leader and Prime Minister Zoran
Zaev announced his resignation from both positions. He was replaced
as prime minister and leader of the ruling party by Dimitar Kovacevski,
former deputy finance minister.

Kovacevski is not very well known to the public. However, his party
colleagues described him as an energetic and knowledgeable man that
will be able to deal with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic
and the energy crisis.

Meanwhile, VMRO-DPMNE, encouraged by its local election victory,
called for snap general elections as quickly as possible. On December
12, the party re-elected Hristijan Mickoski as leader, and he announced
a “new doctrine”, a new policy and a concept of unity as a basis of
“common patriotism”.

Zaev excluded the possibility of snap elections as demanded by the
opposition, saying that the next election will be held at the end of the
current parliamentary term in 2024.

However, local experts do not exclude the possibility of early general
elections possibly in spring 2022.

Political analyst Aleksandar Krzalovski said snap elections in the spring,
more specifically between April and June, are “virtually inevitable”.

North Macedonia became a Nato member in March 2020, and now its
priority is to launch the EU accession talks, after being a candidate
country since 2005.

Bulgaria vetoed the start of EU accession talks with North Macedonia at
the end of 2020 due to history and language issues, which also stalled
the EU integration process of Albania as the two countries were
coupled in the process. Following the two unsuccessful general
elections in April and July, after the third elections in November,
Bulgaria has now formed a new government whose main priority is to
solve the issue with Skopje.

However, Bulgaria still plans to adhere to the parliament’s declaration
from October 10, 2019 on blocking the start of EU talks with North
Macedonia until the issues are resolved. Meanwhile, Sofia supports the
separation of Albania from North Macedonia in the EU membership
process and would back the start of EU accession talks with Tirana.

At the same time, Skopje said it was willing to respond to all requests
from Sofia and has already sent its answers to Bulgaria’s 5+1 plan that

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