Speaker Talat Xhaferi announced that he will put the dissolution of Parliament to the vote on February 11th, after party leaders agreed to hold elections on April 12th. This means that this Parliament likely won’t vote to ratify the expected NATO accession of Macedonia.

The ratification is stuck in Spain, where the Congress is being dissolved for another round of early elections. Their ratification is expected in early 2020, but will likely come after the Macedonian Parliament is dissolved, which would push Macedonia’s entry into NATO which was planned for December 2019 even further into 2020. Xhaferi said that it will not be possible to recall the dissolved Parliament to vote on this one issue alone.

He also dismissed journalists who were asking about the possible changes to the electoral model. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party demands a return to the first past the post system modeled after the US and the UK, while some of the smaller parties want the six districts abolished in favor of one single district and open lists. Xhaferi said that the party leaders are clearly not interested in changing the system and that the time is probably short for any major reform.