SKOPIE, North Macedonia — North Macedonia’s center-right leader Hristijan Mickoski is expected to win parliamentary approval to head a new coalition government in a vote on Sunday.
Mickoski, 46, faces major challenges in his four-year term, not least in boosting the tiny Balkan NATO member’s long efforts to join the 27-nation European Union.
At the same time, the nationalist inclination of his VMRO-DPMNE party is antagonize neighboring members of the opulent bloc, in stark contrast to the previous center-left government that defeated in n The national elections in May.
Mickoski has the support of 78 lawmakers in the 120-seat chamber ahead of Sunday’s vote. His VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition won 43% of the vote on May 8, winning 58 seats, three short of the ruling majority. Mickoski then reached an agreement to form a government with an ethnic Albanian party and a left-wing party, which together have 20 seats.
Mickoski, a former engineering professor, has pledged to continue the efforts of his center-left predecessors to guide North Macedonia toward the EU.
However, VMRO-DPMNE’s questioning of key agreements with neighbors Bulgaria and Greece (which may block North Macedonia’s accession) could slow down the EU project, said political analyst Petar Arsovski.
“(VMRO-DPMNE) basically demands a reinterpretation of both the (Greece deal) and the Bulgaria deal,” he told The Associated Press.
“They will face a serious challenge from the international community, which will consider these agreements as a closed matter,” he said. Arsovski added that the center-right party must also keep its own conservative voters happy, whose expectations he raised during the campaign.
“I don’t expect them to make progress too quickly on any of those issues,” Arsovski said.
North Macedonia joined NATO in 2019 after a historic agreement with Greece change your official Macedonian name, following decades of disputes about history and cultural heritage.
But VMRO-DPMNE has made clear its displeasure with the agreement. Speaking at the start of the two-day parliamentary debate ahead of Sunday’s vote, Mickoski repeatedly used the old name, Macedonia.
North Macedonia’s new president, Gordana Siljanovska Davkova, a VMRO-DPMNE candidate, had already irritated Greek and EU officials by doing the same when she was formally sworn in. She later insisted that she had a “human right” to refer to her country as she wanted.
Relations with Bulgaria are also likely to be affected. The previous North Macedonian government had accepted (but failed to gain parliamentary support) a Bulgarian demand to recognize a Bulgarian minority through a constitutional amendment. In exchange, Bulgaria had agreed to drop its objections to North Macedonia joining the EU.
VMRO-DPMNE has denounced the prospect of a constitutional amendment as a “capitulation (to) Bulgarian dictates.”
EU membership negotiations with North Macedonia and neighboring Albania began in 2022 and are expected to last for years.
Mickoski’s internal challenges include strengthening the rule of law while tackling corruption and poverty and reviving a stagnant economy.
On Saturday he promised to cut taxes and raise pensions, while growing the economy 5% this year and reducing inflation to no more than 2.5%.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
