Budapest, Jun. 24, (dpa/GNA) – The parliament in North Macedonia on Sunday elected the leader of the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party Hristijan Mickoski as the new prime minister.
Seventy-seven lawmakers in the 120-seat house voted in favour of the new government, and 22 voted against. The remaining 21 lawmakers were absent.
The right-wing opposition in North Macedonia convincingly won parliamentary and presidential elections in May. Mickoski’s VMRO-DPMNE formed a coalition with the Albanian alliance VLEN and liberal ZNAM to govern.
The coalition replaced the pro-European and pro-Western Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM).
SDSM had been in power in Macedonia since 2017, which was renamed North Macedonia in 2019. The country joined NATO in 2020 after the government of former prime minister Zoran Zaev settled a name dispute with Greece.
Athens had insisted on the change because a region in northern Greece is named Macedonia. It also paved the way for accession talks with the European Union.
The new president of North Macedonia, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova, and Mickoski both announced during the election campaign that they no longer wanted to use the new official country name North Macedonia, but rather the historical name.
Observers are concerned that under the newly elected government, North Macedonia’s progress in joining the EU may be hindered.