Zoran Zaev agreed to holding early elections, but only in October 2020, two months ahead of the regular term. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party demands early elections following the major corruption scandal involving Special Prosecutor Katica Janeva, which reportedly has ties to the top leadership of Zaev’s SDSM party. VMRO says it will not vote on the proposed law on state prosecutors unless Zaev also agrees to early elections.

We will do what we can to build consensus. These mixed messages from the VMRO-DPMNE leadership, that all our work is for nothing if there are no early elections, will not discourage us from continuing to bring our positions closer on the law on prosecutors, Zaev said.

He proposed October 2020 for elections, a date he had also offered before. VMRO is pushing for a date in the spring of 2020, which would mean that Zaev will have to resign around New Year, and a new, broad Government formed to prepare the elections.