In an interview with Kanal 77, VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski said that smaller partners in Zoran Zaev’s ruling coalition are angry with Zaev after his BGNES interview and announced surrender to Bulgaria, and are preparing to abandon the Government. Zaev’s SDSM – DUI – BESA coalition has only 62 seats in the 120 seat Parliament and any defection could bring it down.

There are members of Parliament from the SDSM coalition, not from the Albanian parties but from the smaller coalition members, who are not satisfied with how the Government operates from the start. I can reveal that following Zaev’s latest interview and the developments linked with Bulgaria this process of separation is intensified and some of them are organizing and thinking about leaving if these anti-national policies are not stopped immediately, Nikoloski said.

On the other hand, he added, VMRO-DPMNE was able to enhance the opposition bloc by initiating cooperation with the two main ethnic Albanian opposition parties, Alternative and Alliance of Albanians, which makes the Parliament evenly split.

Some of Zaev’s coalition partners, like the LDP party and the Pavle Trajanov’s DS party, who together hold three seats in Parliament, criticized Zaev for his comments in the BGNES interview and demanded a meeting of the coalition members to discuss the state of relations with Bulgaria.