Will North Macedonia have an Albanian Prime Minister?

Will North Macedonia have an Albanian Prime Minister?
 Albanian flag in a North Macedonia rally
 The changes in the electoral model that are expected to be proposed by the Macedonian opposition, raise the dilemma of whether in the last three months of the Government's mandate there will be a change of the Prime Minister, or whether the head of the executive will be Albanian.

VMRO DPMNE says that it will propose to change the current model, respectively not to have a technical government at the end of the executive mandate.

The technical government, in which the opposition also participates, had started to be implemented since the 2016 elections, based on an agreement between the parties to resolve the political crisis.

Such a government had the mandate to organize and conduct the electoral process so that their result is acceptable to all political parties, Radio Free Europe reports.

"We are preparing it and in the coming days we will propose a change in the electoral model, which will not provide for a technical government in the last 100 days of the executive, ie there will be no 100 days of time loss for the citizens of Macedonia. Only the constitutional deadline of 45-60 days will remain", declared the chairman of VMRO DPMNE, Hristijan Mickoski.

Former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev and VMRO DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski also agreed on the removal of the technical government in a televised debate on June 30, 2020, but since then there has been no initiative on the issue.

Meanwhile, in the parliamentary elections in 2020, the DUI went to the polls with the motto, "For the first Albanian Prime Minister", but this was not achieved because the Prime Minister, based on the Constitution, is elected by the winning party, however, DUI and SDSM reached an agreement that in the next elections whenever they are held in the last three months of the mandate, or the technical government, to be led by an Albanian prime minister.

DUI remains in its request for the Albanian prime minister, regardless of whether or not the technical government will be removed, and believes that this will be supported by all political parties, as a new achievement, according to DUI, that will prove the democratic maturity of North Macedonia.

"The promise for the first Albanian Prime Minister in the last 100 days of the Government's mandate, proposed by the Democratic Union for Integration, already has the support of the Social Democratic League, but not only, as it also has the support of VMRO DPMNE and Albanian political entities in opposition. "This achievement will become a reality and will undoubtedly be an indicator of the democratic maturity of North Macedonia and a better promoter of the pro-European values ​​of coexistence and progress," said Arbër Ademi, chairman of the DUI Parliamentary Group.

Temelko Ristevski, an expert on constitutional issues, told Radio Free Europe that the warning about the removal of the technical government was welcome due to the fact that such a format, according to him, was unnecessary and creates a bad image for the country.

"The technical government is made with the sole purpose of organizing elections so that they are free, democratic, and acceptable to all parties. I think such a government is unproductive, unnecessary, especially for a NATO member state and a state awaiting the start of EU membership talks. There can be such formats of government in non-democratic countries, or in those countries where there is really such distrust in institutions, or where they are accused of lack of democracy and respect for the most basic right, the right to vote," said Ristevski.

But he also opposes the idea of ​​changing the government shortly before the election just to meet a party's demand for a prime minister. Ristevski says that in this case, too, a lot of time is lost and nothing is achieved except fulfilling the wish of a political party.

"If the decision to have a technical government is annulled and the Albanian prime minister is insisted on, on the other hand, this will cause big problems, since in this case, with the resignation of the prime minister, to leave the place to the new prime minister, to resign the whole Government. The resignation must be confirmed by the Assembly, a new prime minister must be appointed, the legal deadline of 20 days must expire, and finally, a new Government must be elected with a term of only three months. "This seems illogical, unproductive, waste of time, waste and many other procedures, just to fulfill the desire of a political party," said Risteski.

DUI, in addition to the request for an Albanian prime minister, in some cases has come up with another request for an Albanian president. With such a request she came out after the boycott of the 2014 presidential elections after her request to find a consensual candidate for president was rejected.
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