Speaker Talat Xhaferi insists tha tthe Parliament can only convene after an election was held. “Anything else would be a coup attempt”, Xhaferi told TV21, when asked about the request by the ruling SDSM party to re-convene the Parliament that was dissolved in mid February.

All representatives voted on February 16 to dissolve the Parliament. The Parliament will convene after the next elections, Xhaferi said.

His DUI party rejected the SDSM request to recall the dissolved Parliament, as did the main opposition VMRO-DPMNE party. VMRO demands a meeting of party leaders where the next steps in the political crisis will be disussed, while many believe that SDSM wants to recall the Parliament to set a new election on its own, likely in the summer, before the epidemic has been fully defeated and its consequences fully felt in the economy.