North Macedonia Govt Solidifies Majority, Adding New Coalition Partner

The head of Alternative, Afrim Gashi [L] and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev [R] shake hands on Sunday after Alternative joined the government. Photo: vlada.mk

North Macedonia’s fragile coalition government can now breathe a bit easier with the support of 64 MPs in the 120-seat parliament, following an agreemeent clinched with the four MPs of the Alternative party.

The Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader, Zoran Zaev, and the head of Alternative, Aftim Gashi, signed the deal on Saturday.

“We have reached an agreement with Alternative for a stable government and a parliamentary majority until 2024 [the next regular date for parliamentary elections],” Zaev announced on Sunday.

He said that this would allow the government to focus on the ongoing push to start EU accession talks, which requires a breakthrough with neighbouring Bulgaria, which is blocking the process, as well as tackling the health and energy crises.

Despite having only a small number of MPs, Altenrative used its kingmaker position when it comes to the survival of the government to drive a hard bargain, during talks that lasted two weeks.

It has walked off with three ministerial positions, three more deputy ministers as well as several dozen managerial seats, mostly at the expense of the main governing Social Democrats.

Alternative is taking over the Health and Information Society ministries, as well as a diaspora ministry. The names of the new ministers will be revealed later.

Alternative will also head up key state enterprises, such as the Health Fund, the railway company, the national energy producing company MEPSO, the foreign investment agency, and more.

The latest troubles for the government started on October 30 when, after his party’s humiliating defeat in local elections, Zaev announced that he would quit both as Prime Minister and as leader of the Social Democrats.

The cabinet looked even more doomed when another small ethnic Albanian party, BESA, quit the already precarious government, and backed an opposition initiative to hold a  no-confidence vote in Zaev’s government.

The attempt to hold a vote of no-confidence failed, however; the opposition failed to muster enough MPs for the vote to take place. Both sides controlled exactly half of the chamber, with 60 seats each.

Zaev, who then temporarily parked his resignations, has since been trying to get Alternative, and possibly some other opposition MPs, to switch sides and join the government, arguing that the country needs stability to tackle pressing issues, not new elections.

Meanwhile, the ruling Social Democrats are hunting for a new leader. The party last week launched the procedure to elect Zaev’s successor, with a vote set for Sunday, December 12.

The three candidates are Deputy Finance Minister Dimitar Kovacevski, the head of the national Directorate for Technological Industrial Development Zones, Jovan Despotovski, and the former deputy head of the Social Democrats, Frosina Remenski.

Kovacevski is considered the favourite, as Zaev is informally supporting his candidacy. This became apparent when he accompanied Zaev during the talks with Alternative, launching his name as Zaev’s most likely successor.

With Zaev’s retreat from the party helm immanent, on Sunday he shed more light on his plans to step down as Prime Minister as well, saying that whoever become the new Social Democratic leader should also lead the government.

“My days [as PM] are numbered,” Zaev told the media. “I said I would stay to solidify the government majority and today I believe we are achieving that goal. Now I will need to oversdee developments with Bulgaria, and that will take only a few weeks.”

Amid a prospect of yet another Bulgarian blockade at the December EU summit over their unresolved history and identity dispute, North Macedonia remains hopeful that a breakthrough can be made in the next few weeks, which would then incentivise Bulgaria to lift its veto on the start of membership talks.