Despite his announcement, Zoran Zaev still hasn’t resigned from the Government, and now even his resignation as party leader seems uncertain. His allies keep citing the coronavirus pandemic and the looming energy crisis – both made worse by Zaev’s mismanagement – as reasons that will be taken into account as he considers when (or if) to resign.

In the coming period, looking into the global events, and the serious problems that are being announced, we are very careful in processing all decisions, said a Zaev loyalist, Slavjanka Petrovska, who was the face of the very negative and ultimately unproductive local election campaign SDSM waged. Petrovska was asked when she expects Zaev to resign as party leader – a position that is not directly tied to the crises she cited. “As a party we want to respect his decision, but at the same time this is something that needs to be discussed within the party. The coalition partners are discussing the situation and their message is that the Government is stable”, Petrovska said.