TIRANA – As a new meeting is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, SDSM – led coalition “We can” and DUI announced on Monday that their negotiations had advanced to form North Macedonia’s new government with indications that Zoran Zaev will be PM.
According to local media reports the leaders of the two political blocks held intensive talks on Sunday and Monday. “In the talks led by parties’ secretary generals, serious progress has been made in almost all issues that will lead to a coalition government,” SDSM said in a press statement quoted by MIA news agency on Monday.
Given the seriousness of the health crisis it is expected a meeting between the leaders of the party leaders Zoran Zaev and Ali ahmeti on Tuesday at which a final accord on a new government with a four-year term is expected to be reached.
In the meantime, DUI has apparently given up its request to have the post of the government head. As a compromise it will get the posts of the Interior Ministry while Zoran Zaev will be the PM of North Macedonia, INA news agency reported quoting reliable sources. “What is known is that Zoran Zaev as winner of the elections will have the full mandate of the premier,” said the report.
An Albanian PM has been the main promise of DUI during the campaign for the last parliamentary elections.
In the meantime outgoing Speaker Talat Xhaferi said he will schedule the constitutive session’s resumption as soon as the parties confirm that they have reached the resolution to two key issues- election of a Speaker and the Committee on Election and Appointment Issues. He said that he did not have any intention of being a reason for blocking the institution, adding that he followed the relevant procedures.
As regards the possibility of a rotating prime minister or a rotating Speaker, Xhaferi said it was a matter of a political agreement between the parties that make up the parliamentary majority. /argumentum.al
