VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski said that the Parliament has to dissolve tomorrow to allow for early elections on April 12. This was agreed by all the major parties, but the ruling SDSM party is asking for a delay until it can push a law on state prosecutors through this Parliament.

We made a proposal to dissolve the Parliament and we will fight that it is adopted. The Constitution says 60 days, not 55, not 58, but 60, Nikoloski said.

According to Nikoloski, SDSM leader Zoran Zaev still doesn’t have the 81 votes he needs to adopt the law which, he hopes, would shield him from investigation into his numerous corruption scandals. This is why his party is pushing for a delay of a few more days, Nikoloski said.

Nikoloski also rejected Zaev’s claims that VMRO-DPMNE is pressuring the group of representatives who were expelled from the party not to vote for the prosecutors law. Nikoloski said that the opposition has no tools it can use to pressure this group. Most of the nine members of Parliament were blackmailed using criminal cases filed against them by prosecutors loyal to Zaev to vote for the name change in 2019, and it is believed that they are now similarly being blackmailed or bribed to vote for the prosecutors law.