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Former Premier Zaev Wins North Macedonia Vote by Tight Margin

Former Premier Zaev Wins North Macedonia Vote by Tight Margin

Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev’s party scored a tight win in North Macedonia’s general elections but fell short of a majority, setting the stage for a struggle to form a coalition government in the European Union aspirant.

The domestic drama plays out against a backdrop of political turmoil in the Balkans. The war-scarred region thought it had put the worst of the coronavirus pandemic behind it, but a second wave of infections has added to the public anger in this restive corner on the EU’s southeastern flank.

Zaev’s coalition, which includes a small party representing ethnic Albanians, got 36.1% of the votes, followed by the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE with 34.9%, the State Electoral Commission reported Thursday, with 98% of precincts counted. The Democratic Union for Integration, the biggest party representing ethnic Albanians, took its traditional kingmaker role in third with 11.3%.

“We’ll build our North Macedonia as a European, modern” country, “an established NATO member and negotiator” with the EU, Zaev told reporters in Skopje.

The former premier’s previous government changed the country’s name to help resolve a dispute with Greece and clear the way for it to join NATO and the EU after decades of making no progress. The landlocked former part of Yugoslavia became the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 30th member in March, and the EU published a negotiation framework in July for North Macedonia’s accession.

Zaev brought down that administration in January by resigning after initially failing to secure a date to start EU accession talks. It’s unclear whether he’ll now be able to form a ruling coalition.

VMRO-DPMNE will also be jostling for position. The party, whose former leader fled to Hungary to avoid a two-year jail sentence for abuse of office, has accused Zaev’s Social Democrats of focusing on western integration and ignoring domestic problems. That includes criticism that they failed to tackle the coronavirus despite imposing one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe during their pre-election interim cabinet.

The third-placed Democratic Union for Integration has been part of every coalition in the nation of 2 million people for the past 20 years. It has already announced its nominee for an ethnic-Albanian prime minister but Zaev has rejected the candidate.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.