Zoran Zaev announced the option of declaring a state of emergency, as his coalition fails to move any legislation through Parliament. Zaev only has 62 votes for his SDSM – DUI – BESA coalition, and most of the time some of them are hospitalized or away on travel, meaning that it is unable to convene the Parliament – which requires 61 votes – without help from the opposition. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party said it will give the votes for the adoption of the proposed economic stimulus package and a few other critical bills, but not for the other items on Zaev’s agenda.

Zaev said that the options include coordination between the parties in the Parliament, a meeting of party leaders and declaring a state of emergency.

We need to liberate the institutions who mean life for our people, Zaev said.

He added that he is open to adopting a new law on citizenship. Two Albanian opposition parties announced they will block any piece of legislation until the Parliament adopts an extremely liberal citizenship law that will allow people to claim they lived in Macedonia prior to 1991 and are entitled to citizenship simply with the help of one or several witnesses.

Zaev announced a meeting with his coalition partner Ali Ahmeti from DUI and with the Speaker of Parliament Talat Xhaferi to discuss the crisis in the Parliament.

In a state of emergency, the Government can rule by decree. But it takes 80 votes to declare a state of emergency, or, alternatively, a decision by the President. But such a move from the President can only be taken if the Parliament is unable to meet, which is currently not the case – it can meet, but there are simply not enough votes for any proposal due to Zaev’s decision to form a purely political coalition even after the narrowly split results of the chaotic 2020 elections.