Albanian parties in Macedonia are arguing over the idea of holding early general elections in spring, along with the local elections. The idea was mentioned by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski, apparently in jest, as he was debating SDSM party leader Venko Filipce during the question time in Parliament.

But it was truly picked up by DUI party leader Ali Ahmeti, who has serious trouble holding his coalition together while in opposition, after spending two decades comfortably in power. Ahmeti already lost one smaller coalition partners, and the fidelity of others is questionable. Several initial corruption investigations that are targetting Ahmeti’s inner circly – even his family – is causing fears in DUI that their decades of impunity are over. So it’s understandable why he jumped at Mickoski’s comment, to encourage his supporters that their stay in opposition will be short, only until next spring, when Ahmeti hopes that he will be able to defeat the VLEN coalition – VMRO-DPMNE’s preferred Albanian coalition partner.

But VLEN responded by upping the challenge – they are calling on Ahmeti to pledge to retire from politics after he loses the next elections. “Stop encouraging your scared former officials with false prospects of early general elections and concentrate on reforming the party in its policies and cadres. And if Ahmeti really wants early general elections, first he must depose a written guarantee that he will leave politics if he loses”, VLEN responded.

VLEN and DUI fought closely in the 2024 general elections, with DUI coming narrowly on top but only after it used its accumulated influence in the Government to bring a number of smaller coalition partners to its side. Because some of these coalition partners did not represent ethnic Albanians but rather Turks, Bosniaks and Roma, DUI and VLEN are now disputing which party won more ethnic Albanian votes and therefore deserves the title of “winner among the Albanians”.