North Macedonian PM resigns after EU bid blocked, calls snap election
After a recent block on North Macedonia’s accession to the EU by France, the Prime Minister announced his resignation on Saturday, leading to snap elections that may place anti-EU opposition in power within the country.
Prime Minister Zoran Zaev referred to his country as “victims of the EU’s historical mistake” while announcing the election, and said it would be up to the Macedonian people to “decide the road we are going to take.”
The leader of Zaev’s opposition, conservative Hristijan Mickoski of the VMRO-DPMNE part, had previously called for snap elections as soon as March of 2020.
The opposition accuses Zaev and his Social Democrats (SDSM) of betraying the national interest, most specifically with regards to the deal with Greece that saw the nation change its official title from Republic of Macedonia to Republic of North Macedonia.
The VMRO-DPMNE has been on the ouster from Macedonian politics since the disgrace of its former leader, former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who was sentenced for corruption in May of 2018 and fled to political asylum in Hungary to avoid two years in prison.
One major risk should the opposition regain power in the North Macedonian government is that tensions could flare with Bulgaria, their neighbor and long-time rival which recently threatened to block EU accession talks itself unless a long list of demands were met.
Those demands reference “anti-Bulgarian ideology” stemming from North Macedonia’s past as a successor state of the now-dissolved communist Yugoslavia, which at one time attempted to absorb Bulgaria as well as Albania.
Bulgaria demanded the removal of historical monuments from the World War 2 era that refer to “Bulgarian fascist occupators,” as well as various concessions and changes to history books published within North Macedonia.
Additionally, North Macedonia was pressed to abandon its claims regarding the existence of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria.
These factors together comprise a source of frustration for North Macedonian conservatives, unhappy with the effects of foreign pressure on North Macedonian culture, in the same line as Greece’s demand for the nation’s change of name.
Few of these factors were likely considered by France, which is merely opposed to EU enlargement in a general sense, a sentiment that predates current President Emmanuel Macron but to which he has been accused of catering.
Albania, the other nation blocked from accession talks at the same time as North Macedonia, has likewise blamed EU internal issues for the setback, although Albania was also blocked by Denmark and the Netherlands for reasons regarding corruption in its government.
