With the latest turn in the Spanish political drama, VMRO-DPMNE member of Parliament Antonio Milososki predicts that Macedonia can’t expect a speedy ratification of its NATO accession protocol. Spain is the last remaining NATO member that still hasn’t ratified the protocol, and the ruling SDSM party is using this as an excuse to keep alive the possibility of delaying the early general elections planned for April 2020.

It’s difficult to see Madrid having a stable Government before New Year. The delay of this process leads to a delay in the ratification of the Macedonian NATO protocol by Spain. It stands to reason that the Macedonian Parliament should finish its own task before it is disbanded, Milososki said.

The Macedonian Parliament should dissolve on February 11th, so that the elections could be held on April 12th. This means that if Spain ratifies the protocol after February 11th, there will be no Macedonian Parliament to complete the task until mid April at the earliest, and this would delay Macedonia’s NATO accession by additional few months. VMRO-DPMNE calls on SDSM to bypass this issue by ratifying the protocol now, without waiting on Spain, but SDSM, which is down in the polls, has refused to do so, keeping alive the option to postpone the elections using NATO as pretext.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called on the conservatives to help him form the next minority Government by abstaining from the next Congress session. This would lower the majority necessary to elect the next Government and would allow Sanchez to push his cabinet through, but it’s unclear whether the right would grant him his wish.