Page 54 - bne monthly magazine June 2024 Russian Despair Index

54 I Southeast Europe bne June 2024
VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski is set to become North Macedonia's next prime minister. / VMRO-DPMNE
votes (14.1%), edging out the opposition front Vlen, which took 11% of the votes.
However, VMRO-DPMNE has expressed reluctance to form a coalition govern- ment with the DUI, opting instead to align with the opposition VLEN.
Znam’s MPs are also expected to be part of the new government.
Projections indicate that VMRO-DPMNE may secure 59 parliamentary seats, with the SDSM on 19, the DUI on 18, Vlen on 13, Left on six and Znam on five.
Analysts believe Mickoski is in a strong position to establish a new government, given the party's electoral success.
More than 1.8mn eligible voters were eligible to participate in the elections across 3,360 polling stations, tasked with electing 120 members of parliament and the next country’s president.
The voter turnout for the presidential election stood at 46.38%, while for the parliamentary election it reached 53.41%, with 93% of the votes counted, according to the SEC.
country's name, a change made by the previous SDSM government to resolve a longstanding dispute with Greece that had held up the country’s EU accession.
He confirmed plans to initiate negotiations as soon as possible with opposition parties for a new government formation.
Within the Macedonian bloc, the opposition pro-Russian Left party
secured 6.8% of the vote, while
the newly formed Znam, a splinter party from the SDSM, received 5.3%. Other minor parties failed to cross the threshold for parliamentary representation.
Among the parties representing the country’s sizeable ethnic Albanian minority, a coalition led by the DUI, comprising various ethnic minority parties, won the largest share of the
Kosovo to become first Muslim-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage
Valentina Dimitrievska in Skopje
Kosovo's Prime Minister
Albin Kurti announced his government plans to legalise same-sex marriages in May, as part of the country’s efforts to join the Council of Europe (CoE).
If the plan goes ahead, Kosovo would become the first Muslim-majority country to legalise same-sex unions, and the second in the EU-aspiring Western Balkans region.
"Kosovo will make an effort to soon become the second country in the Western Balkans, after Montenegro,
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which guarantees its citizens the right to a same-sex life partnership. We
will work hard to pass this in the near future," Kurti was cited by Klix.ba as saying in the German parliament.
In addition, Kurti said that his government will also work to meet
the rights and needs of minority ethnic communities, including the Serbian minority.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recommended on April 16 that Kosovo be invited
to become a member of the Council
of Europe, contingent upon its commitment to fulfill an extensive list of obligations as part of its accession.
Serbia, which still sees Kosovo as part of its territory, opposes the idea of Kosovo joining the CoE.
In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally
declared independence from Serbia, following a bloody conflict in 1998-
99. Despite engaging in EU-mediated normalisation dialogue, both countries have made limited progress in resolving their differences.