The prime minister of North Macedonia and his cabinet on January 25 submitted their resignations to parliament, clearing the way for a caretaker government to be installed ahead of general elections in May.
Prime Minister Dimitar Kovachevski said he thanked his ministers ahead of a meeting with Talat Xhaferi, speaker of the parliament, who also resigned on January 25, three days before he is expected to take over as caretaker prime minister.
“I will wish him a successful procedure until Sunday, and then a successful election of him as technical prime minister," Kovachevski told reporters, describing Xhaferi as a politician who has a lot of experience in running the parliament.
Xhaferi will be the first ethnic Albanian to hold the position of acting head of government.
Kovachevski said that while Xhaferi's style will be different, he “will certainly maintain the state's strategic direction, which is the Western orientation [and] the strategic partnership with the United States.”
The practice of forming a caretaker government 100 days before election day was established in 2015 as part of a deal between the main political parties under the mediation of the European Union to end a political crisis at the time.
Parliament is also scheduled to vote on a new cabinet on January 28. The current opposition will have two ministers in the 20-member cabinet and three deputy ministers.
The main political parties agreed last month to hold general elections on May 8, which is two months early and will coincide with the second round of presidential elections. The first round is scheduled for April 24.
The main opposition party, the center-right VMRO-DPMNE, had been pressing for early elections, accusing the government led by the center-left Social Democrats and their junior coalition partners of corruption, nepotism, and incompetence.
Kovacevski, representing the Social Democratic Union, has been head of the government since January 2022. He expressed confidence that on May 9 he will lead the new government.
North Macedonia began membership talks with the European Union in 2022. The small Balkan country of 1.8 million people must meet certain criteria to join including changing its constitution to recognize a Bulgarian minority. The issue is highly contentious because of the overlapping histories and cultures of Bulgaria and North Macedonia.