Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski, who is one of Zoran Zaev’s top lieutenants, also announced that he will not be part of the next Government that the SDSM party is trying to put together under its new leader Dimitar Kovacevski.

The new President needs to be given an opportunity to choose his own team. He should make this choice from new people, and I don’t think I should be part of the new team, I don’t want to burden the President or his team, Spasovski said.

This means that the next Government – if Kovacevski is able to get to 61 votes in Parliament – will not include any of Zaev’s top people, except perhaps for Ljupco Nikolovski, who still hasn’t declared whether he wants to stay on. Venko Filipce, Mila Carovska and Radmila Sekerinska have already ruled out staying in the Government.

Spasovski insisted that SDSM isn’t too badly wounded by the drubbing they endured in the local elections and with the removal of Zoran Zaev and his top people.