Zoran Zaev’s envoy to Bulgaria, former Prime Minister Vlado Buckovski, joined in the calls for Zaev not to resign. In a TV interview, Buckovski insisted that there is chance that the Bulgarian veto is lifted and Macedonia opens its EU accession talks in December, but if there is a political Government in place.

Zaev announced that he will resign after badly losing in the local elections, but is indicating he is open to being “persuaded” to change his mind.

It was Zaev who got us so close to finding a compromise solution with Bulgaria, and managed to persuade the international community to exert exceptional pressure on Bulgaria in the past three to 6 months. It’s obvious that relations in the ruling coalition and the pressure from the international community are in the direction that we don’t hold early elections, precisely because of the possibility that exists to resolve the dispute with Bulgaria, no matter how remote that may be, Buckovski said.

Regarding the elections, he accused former SDSM party leader Branko Crvenkovski of sabotaging Zaev’s local elections campaign. Buckovski, who lost badly in the 2006 elections after factions emerged in SDSM, said that Crvenkovski did the same to him, in order to remove him as party leader.