Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov could replace Zoran Zaev as head of the Government, after Zaev announced that he will resign in light of his major local elections defeat.

The paper reports that this is one of the three options – the other two being that Zaev goes back on his pledge to resign, and the creation of a new ruling majority led by VMRO-DPMNE with Hristijan Mickoski as Prime Minister. The Nikola Dimitrov option would elevate him to Prime Minister within the current SDSM led coalition.

An opportunistic former Foreign Minister, Dimitrov used his family ties to the VMRO-DPMNE party to get important diplomatic assignments under the VMRO governments, only to join with SDSM and Zaev during their 2015 Colored Revolution. He signed the Prespa Treaty and the Friendship Treaty with Bulgaria, even though his father, and former Minister Dimitar Dimitrov, famously cursed whoever signs off the name Macedonia that “he should lose his right hand”. The treaties failed to deliver the expected concessions – Macedonia joined NATO but thye provoked a new dispute with Bulgaria which is now blocking the opening of Macedonia’s EU accession talks. According to FAZ reporter Michael Martens, this contributed to Zaev’s defeat in the local elections, and should be seen as defeat of the EU policy in the Balkans.

Nikola Dimitrov could be badly suited for the current dispute with Bulgaria – he has close contacts in the incoming SPD Government in Germany, and has tried to use them to pressure Bulgaria into giving up its veto, which backfired. Bulgarian diplomats demanded that he is removed from their talks, and Zaev went around Dimitrov and appointed former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski as his personal envoy.