After a long day of drama in the Parliament, during which a member of Parliament went missing and derailed the vote of no confidence, an SDSM official finally addressed the public. Jovan Mitreski, head of the SDSM group in Parliament, insisted that their majority remains stable and taht they are going to add more representatives on their list.

Hristijan Mickoski (VMRO-DPMNE leader) lied to the public that he has 61 votes to topple the Government. The ruling majority is stable and will grow, Mitreski said.

A little earlier, Mickoski said that given the tactics employed by the Government – the apparent kidnapping of an opposition member of Parliament to prevent the vote of no confidence – it’s not surprising if Zaev manages to bring more representatives to his side with similar means of pressure and blackmail. Mitreski said that he in deed expects more representatives to join SDSM and that developments in this regard will be announced tomorrow.

The Parliament is currently split between the roughly equal groups of VMRO and SDSM, with the DUI party siding with SDSM and Alliance of Albanians, Alternative, and as of recently BESA, siding with VMRO for a 60:59 split in favor of the opposition or 60:60 split if Rexhepi sides with the ruling coalition. But the loyalty of many smaller parties on both sides of the divide is doubtful. If the Zaev Government survives today, it will face a new major test in the coming weeks as it needs to adopt the 2022 budget.