Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski said that the ruling coalition is open for yet another ethnic Albanian party – BESA – which left the coalition a year and a half ago.

Kovacevski recently brought the Alliance of Albanians on-board, in an attempt to increase the coalition, but due to other defections, ended up with more or less the same number of seats in Parliament. Due to the shifting allegiances in the Albanian camp, BESA is on the rise, as it’s seen as the main authentic opposition party, even though it was part of the SDSM – DUI coalition.

All ministerial positions are filled, but all parties can participate at different levels, with different positions. At the moment there are no such talks. The Government remains open to all individuals, parties and organizations, that want to join the European front, Kovacevski said.

The statement seems more geared toward the next general elections. Faced with collapsing support among ethnic Macedonians for his SDSM party, Kovacevski is hoping that with a first of its size pre-election coalition between SDSM and two large Albanian parties, DUI and AA, he will be able to draw the result against VMRO-DPMNE. Adding BESA to this mix, after his party already joined SDSM in a pre-election coalition in 2020, might help, but could also cause both Macedonian and Albanian who are angry with the way things are going, to turn to other parties.