Defense Minister Radmila Sekerinska said that her SDSM party is open to holding early elections, as the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party requested, while her colleague Bujar Osmani from the DUI party was less welcoming to the idea at the press conference on Sunday. Sekerinska said that the call for elections is an attempt to shift the discussion away from the renaming of the country. But, she said that SDSM will carefully examine the proposal.

There are many arguments in favor of this initiative, Sekerinska said, adding that the so-called Przino rules will be respected. This means that the Prime Minister will resign 100 days ahead of the elections, and that some key ministers will also resign, and their departments will be given to the opposition.

Osmani insisted that his DUI party is 2.5 times stronger than the nearest ethnic Albanian party, but added that the focus should be on completing talks with NATO, opening EU accession talks and on the economy, not on holding elections. VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski asked that the early general elections are held along with the presidential elections expected in April, meaning that Prime Minister Zaev and key ministers would have to resign very soon if the demand is accepted.