North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski announced on Tuesday that his cabinet will resign on Thursday, January 25, to pave the way for the formation of a technical Government.
The resignation will also be presented by the Speaker of the Parliament, Talat Xhaferi, who is expected to be appointed as the prime minister of the technical Government. It is set to function for 100 days or until parliamentary elections scheduled for May 8.
“The entire Government will resign on Thursday at 10:00. We will have enough time to complete all formalities, and on Sunday (January 28), the technical Government will be voted on,” Kovačevski declared.
Before the new Government vote, the Parliament must elect a new Speaker, Jovan Mitreski, currently the head of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM).
According to the Law on Elections, a technical government is formed 100 days before each election cycle and is responsible for organizing and conducting parliamentary elections.
Part of this Government, in addition to the parties currently forming the executive branch (SDSM, BDI, and the Alliance for Albanians), should also include the opposition, specifically VMRO-DPMNE. It will be responsible for the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, as well as three deputy ministers with specific responsibilities, meaning that ministers cannot make any decisions without the signatures of deputy ministers.
However, VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski stated that his party’s deputies will not vote for the technical Government because they oppose it being led by Talat Xhaferi, a member of the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), accusing him of numerous legal violations during his tenure as the Speaker of the Parliament.
On the other hand, BDI has warned that “if VMRO does not vote for its ministerial candidates, then BDI will not vote for VMRO’s candidates”.
During the announcement of the Government’s resignation, Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski said, “The upcoming elections will be a choice between the West and the East”.
“It’s about elections where you have center and center-left political parties or center and center-right political parties. But in our country, there will now be elections in which political parties favor the western orientation of the state will face off against political parties that advocate a clear eastern orientation of the country,” Kovačevski stated.
However, VMRO-DPMNE has claimed that such statements by officials in power are made “with the aim of hiding crime and corruption through European integration”.
Parliamentary elections in North Macedonia on May 8 will be held concurrently with the second round of presidential elections.
The first round of presidential elections is scheduled for April 24.
