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freedom and security.
Meanwhile, relations between Spajic and President Jakov Milatovic who jointly founded PES, have worsened and in spring 2024 Milatovic left PES. Since then, the two have been criticising each other and Milatovic has vetoed some laws.
At the same time, the ruling coalition seems unstable after its members lost the local election in the capital Podgorica. So far, this has not significantly affected its stability but it could affect it in 2025.
1.8 Politics – North Macedonia
In June 2024, the right-wing VMRO-DPMNE, led by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, came to power in North Macedonia after defeating the Social Democrats (SDSM) in the May general election. The ruling coalition includes the ZNAM party, headed by dissident former SDSM member Maksim Dimitrievski, and the ethnic Albanian coalition VLEN.
Together, they command 78 MPs in the 120-seat parliament, two seats shy of the two-thirds majority required for passing key legislation. The government has so far been stable.
However, tensions have emerged with the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), an ethnic Albanian party that is now in opposition, but was previously a partner in every government since the 2001 Ohrid Agreement, which ended the armed conflict in the country and granted greater rights to the ethnic Albanian community.
For the first time in opposition, the DUI has expressed dissatisfaction, notably during protests on December 11 when North Macedonia’s Constitutional Court delayed its decision on the controversial 2018 law on languages.
This law, passed under the previous Social Democrat-DUI government, expanded the use of Albanian as an official language nationwide, benefitting the ethnic Albanian population, which constitutes about 25% of the country’s 1.8mn residents. Critics have challenged both the adoption and implementation of the law, prompting legal and public debates.
The government’s stability may be tested further in 2025 during local elections. In Skopje, citizens are dissatisfied with Mayor Danela Arsovska, citing issues such as public transport failures and chronic pollution. Past local elections have demonstrated significant shifts in political power, with the Social Democrats dominating in 2017 and VMRO-DPMNE achieving a sweeping victory in 2021, including the key mayoral position in Skopje.
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