Tuesday, 19 October 2021
Macedonia 19.10.21 | 13:12

Zaev triples down on his claim that the opposition is “evil”

Zoran Zaev made a third statement in two days declaring the opposition as “evil”. He made the comment in his non-concessions speech on Monday morning, as his SDSM party was trounced in the local elections on Sunday, and reiterated it with a statement later on Monday. Now, in a second statement, he...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 11:56

Levica has a chance to deal a blow to Zaev in the Skopje mayoral race

The left wing populist Levica party was one of the big winners of the local elections. The party didn’t win a single mayoral seat and is not running for any in the second round on October 31st, but, in line with its slogan “put Levica in your municipal council” it did exceptionally...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 11:34

The race in Tetovo could sink Zaev’s coalition

A major issue going into the second round of the local elections developed in the ruling SDSM – DUI – BESA coalition, as several remaining races divide the coalition partners. DUI and BESA candidates went to the second round of the mayoral election in Tetovo, which the ethnic Albanians in...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 10:47

EU will present its latest progress report on Macedonia, no actual progress expected

The European Commission is set to publish its new progress report on Macedonia, which will likely not help Macedonia’s prospects to open accession talks as the country faces the Bulgarian veto. The report will be presented early afternoon in Strasbourg by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi. The European...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 10:35

Despite Zaev’s local election defeat, DUI insists that the ruling coalition is stable

Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani insisted that the Zaev led ruling coalition is stable, despite the devastating defeat it suffered in the local elections. Zaev’s SDSM party is on the verge of losing all major urban centers, except for his stronghold of Strumica, and DUI is in for a big fight to keep...

Macedonia Culture 19.10.21 | 10:21

Culture Minister Stefoska opens an event dedicated to the fight against the Bulgarian occupation in World War Two

Culture Minister Irena Stefoska opened the event dedicated to the writers, poets, painters and other artists who were inspired by the partisan movement in the Second World War. At a time when the Zaev regime is preparing the Macedonian public for major concessions to Bulgaria on national identity issues,...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 10:10

Gjorcev: The silent majority punished SDSM

I crossed the whole of Macedonia over the past 20 days, and I can tell you that the energy in the people was palpable and there was a lot dissatisfaction, said VMRO-DPMNE official Vladimir Gjorcev following the major VMRO victory in the local elections. Macedonia endured awful things, it was horribly...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 09:59

SDSM collapse in Skopje led to enormous winning margins for VMRO in its urban centers

The enormous local elections victory for Macedonia is largely due to the complete collapse of the SDSM party in the capital Skopje. While VMRO largely held its share of votes from the 2017 elections – which VMRO badly lost – SDSM saw its numbers halved or even worse. Nowhere is the difference...

Macedonia 19.10.21 | 09:46

VMRO will have 17 seats in the Skopje council against 12 for SDSM

With all votes counted in the race in the capital Skopje, it’s clear that VMRO-DPMNE will have majority there with 17 seats, against 12 for SDSM. DUI will have 6 votes. Levica won 4, and the LDP-DOM coalition, the Alliance of Albanians and Alternative coalition and the green ZHG groups will all...