Law professor Tanja Karakamiseva insisted that a call from SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev that the Government is reorganized into a purely political, SDSM dominated one, is not doable. Zaev agreed to resign as Prime Minister and allow several opposition VMRO-DPMNE officials to assume positions in the Government allowing them to stop its abuse in the 100 days period in the run up to the elections that were planned for April 12. But the elections had to be postponed because of the coronavirus epidemic.

Zaev’s SDSM party did not keep its end of the deal in full – it removed Labour and Welfare Minister Rasela Mizrahi after a virulent anti-Semitic campaign, apparently concerned about her rising popularity, leaving only Nake Culev as an opposition appointee in charge of a Government department – the Interior Ministry. But Culev, and several deputy ministers who remain in their positions, is also a thorn in the SDSM side, and Zaev now calls for his resignation. As his plan to hold elections in June or early July, before the coronavirus crisis has been fully resolved, is met with opposition, Zaev would like to reorganize the Government into a fully political one, and remove the VMRO-DPMNE officials. He would probably also want to go back to being Prime Minister, as the date for elections seems likely to be postponed to autumn, or maybe even at the latest possible date in December.

But Karakamiseva points out that with the Parliament dissolved, not only there is nobody to appoint new Government officials, there is nobody there to accept a resignation from Culev, even if he agrees to sign one.

The Constitutional Court twice found that the act to dissolve the Parliament was fully constitutional. This means that there is no Parliament. Therefore, the blackmail from SDSM aimed at the opposition is not workable. Only the Parliament can elect a new Government, Karakamiseva said.

The situation mirrors the earlier political crisis of 2015-16, when SDSM kept postponing the election date until it could get its loyalists in the Special Prosecutor’s Office to inflict enough damage with their partisan attacks on VMRO-DPMNE. At the same time, SDSM demanded that their members of Government remain in place.