Liberal Democratic Party leader Goran Milevski opened the possibility that the party will run independently during the coming municipal elections, and not in coalition with SDSM. LDP is removing its two members of Parliament from the SDSM led group in a sign that it wants to chart a more independent course, even though it insists that it will continue to support Zaev’s Government.

The coalition is stable. We are dedicated to the reforms. It is not serious to hold early elections every 100 days. All options are open for us, we are considering an independent run in the municipal elections. It makes sense that all parties compete on their own. We will decide in the coming two weeks, said Milevski, who is Zaev’s Minister for municipalities.

Zaev sternly condemned LDP for its move to leave the joint group in Parliament, especially as it comes at a time when the Government is facing votes of no confidence for its worst performing ministers, and the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party announces it is close to forging a new majority.

Under these circumstances, when the opposition says it can form a majority, and we say they absolutely can not, this move by LDP can me a signal that harms our joint coalition approach. We still have excellent cooperation. They shouldn’t have done this now, they could’ve waited for 15 or 30 days. This was badly timed, Zaev said, protesting the LDP removal from the SDSM led group in Parliament.

LDP has two seats in Parliament and could potentially bring down Zaev’s Government. The BESA party, which has four seats, also announced that it will run independently in the municipal elections, and could leave the SDSM led caucus.