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North Macedonia Premier Remains in Power as Ouster Motion Fails

North Macedonia Premier Remains in Power as Ouster Motion Fails

North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev survived a no-confidence motion as the nationalist opposition failed to secure majority against him which would have opened its path back to power.

Opposition parties lacked one vote needed to start a parliamentary debate and vote against Zaev’s government late Thursday. Now he gets a second chance to reorganize his coalition with parties representing ethnic Albanians.

It was that alliance that reached a historic agreement with Greece to change the country’s name and open the door to NATO entry. But he has failed to unblock North Macedonia’s path to European Union accession talks, which has been vetoed by neighboring Bulgaria amid disputes over history and language. 

His future is still shaky after his party lost a local election to the nationalists last month. He then said he’ll resign to allow his ruling majority to pick a new cabinet and complete the four-year term.

But conflicts between his coalition partners -- parties representing ethnic Albanians -- delayed his resignation and allowed the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE to request the confidence motion. The opposition has called for snap elections.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.