Outgoing Prime Minister Zoran Zaev named Mila Carovska and Oliver Spasovski as the candidates for Interim Prime Minister after he resigns on January 3rd. Zaev also said that there is no need to postpone the elections set for April 12th, even as he and a number of other top SDSM party officials raised this prospect in the past weeks.

Under the 100 days rule, Zaev is supposed to resign 100 days before the election and SDSM is asked to appoint an Interim Prime Minister.

We need to agree on the technical Prime Minister and other officials, and I expect that my resignation is noted on January 3rd, 100 days before the elections, and with that my Government will stop functioning and a technical Government will be formed, Zaev told the press today. The opposition is supposed to appoint an interim Interior Minister and take over two other departments, as well as adding several deputy ministers who would have veto rights over major decisions, to prevent further abuse of the public administration in favor of the SDSM party. This process will likely affect Spasovski, who is now Interior Minister, and Carovska, who runs the Labour and Welfare Ministry.

He also said that the expects that a new Spanish Government will be formed at the start of January, leaving enough time for it to ratify Macedonia’s NATO accession protocol by February 11th, when the Macedonian Parliament dissolves. Earlier, Zaev said that the elections might have to be postponed if Spain ratifies the NATO protocol after February 11th, as there will not be a Macedonian Parliament to complete the process until mid April. Today he said that he is open to the proposal from the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party that the outgoing Macedonian Parliament ratifies the protocol before Spain.