The Fokus magazine reports that the SDSM party is considering Deputy Finance Minister Dimitar Kovacevski as its new leader. The name of the little known son of a former Kumanovo Mayor, has been dropped in the past weeks, following the major defeat in the local elections and the announced resignation of Zoran Zaev.

It’s not clear whether Zaev actually plans to go ahead with his resignation, as both Prime Minister and SDSM leader. He postponed this move and is trying to keep together the SDSM-DUI coalition in Parliament.

According to Fokus, a dozen people were considered as Zaev’s replacement, mostly from the Skopje wing of the party that is in partial revolt against him. Besides obviously Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska, the party also considered its Ambassador to NATO Dane Talevski, former mayors Petre Silegov and Stefan Bogoev, ministers Bojan Maricic and Venko Filipce, Zaev loyalists Oliver Spasovski and Ljupco Nikolovski, and his current deputy leader Sanja Lukarevska.