Zoran Zaev announced that he is resigning as Prime Minister of Macedonia and as leader of the SDSM party.

The announcement comes after his party suffered major defeat in the local elections, losing almost all important cities and urban centers.

Zaev said that he still wants to see his SDSM party remain in power and continue to rule the country, through its coalition with DUI and a host of other parties, likely by appointing a crony as nominal Prime Minister.

I take responsibility for the bad results in these elections. I expect that the progressive forces will remain, will continue to fight. There is no need for early elections. I will remain as Prime Minister in the coming period until we re-organize a new Government with a progressive majority that exists, and could grow in the future. We have excellent opportunities in the two years ahead of us, to continue to work and achieve economic success, Zaev said.

Zaev has 62 seats in Parliament – out of 120. The reliability of many of his allies is uncertain, especially in face of the defeat in the local elections, in which nominal allies like DOM and LPD openly campaigned against him, while others, like DUI, obviously did not support his candidates in the second round of the elections.