Aleksandar Kiracovski, the SDSM party official who was removed as the party’s Secretary General due to his alleged involvement in the major Racket scandal, asked that Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Dimitrov resigns if Macedonia fails to open EU accession talks.

I’m speaking about a heroic and dignified resignation that will send a powerful message that the unjustified postponement of our EU integration, outside of our power and blame, is unacceptable and is costing us a lot. It would indicate that his current position, as a Deputy Prime Minister in charge of EU accession talks, is becoming moot. It would also indicate that it was naive to sign a treaty with Bulgaria without strong and clear guarantees that history will be left to the historians, and that our opening of EU accession talks will not be conditioned by the outcome of the discussions of the historians, Kiracovski said.

Kiracovski arguably took the fall for Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, who was also allegedly strongly implicated in the well developed extortion network built around Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva. Now calls for Zaev to resign are multiplying again, including from top party insiders such as Branko Crvenkovski. Sacrificing Nikola Dimitrov and blaming the party outsider for the Bulgarian veto could buy Zaev some more time in office.