North Macedonia's parliament approves new coalition government

North Macedonia's centre-right leader has secured parliamentary approval to lead a new coalition government in a vote.

A total of 77 lawmakers in the 120-seat house voted in favour of the new government, and 22 voted against on late Sunday.

The remaining 21 lawmakers were absent during the ballot.

Hristijan Mickoski, 46, faces significant challenges in his four-year term in office — above all to advance the small Balkan NATO member's lengthy efforts to join the 27-nation European Union.

At the same time, his VMRO-DPMNE party's nationalist bent is antagonising neighbouring members of the affluent bloc, starkly contrasting to the previous centre-left government it defeated in May's national elections.

Mickoski's VMRO-DPMNE-led coalition gained 43 percent of the vote on May 8, winning 58 seats — three short of a governing majority. Mickoski then struck a deal to form a government with an ethnic Albanian and a leftist party, which together have 20 seats.

More to go

Mickoski, a former engineering professor, has pledged to continue his centre-left predecessors’ efforts to shepherd North Macedonia into the EU.

However, VMRO-DPMNE’s questioning of key agreements with neighbouring Bulgaria and Greece — both of which can block North Macedonia’s accession — could put the brakes on the EU project, said political analyst Petar Arsovski.

“(VMRO-DPMNE) basically demands a reinterpretation of both the (deal with Greece) and the agreement with Bulgaria,” he told The Associated Press.

“They will face a serious challenge from the international community, which will treat these agreements as a done deal,” he said. Arsovski added that the centre-right party must also keep happy its own conservative voters whose expectations it raised during campaigning.

“I don’t expect them to make a breakthrough too quickly on any of those issues,” Arsovski said.

Relations with neighbours

North Macedonia joined NATO in 2019 after a historic deal with Greece to change its official name from Macedonia, following decades of disputes over history and cultural heritage.

But VMRO-DPMNE has made clear its distaste for the agreement.

Speaking at the start of the two-day parliamentary debate leading to Sunday's vote, Mickoski repeatedly used the former name, Macedonia.

North Macedonia’s new President Gordana Siljanovska Davkova — a VMRO-DPMNE candidate — had already riled Greek and EU officials by doing the same when she took the formal oath of office. She later insisted that she had a “human right” to refer to her country as she liked.

Relations with Bulgaria are also likely to suffer. North Macedonia's previous government had accepted — but failed to win parliamentary backing for — a Bulgarian demand to recognise a Bulgarian minority through 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 neighbouring Albania began in 2022 and are expected to take years.

Mickoski's domestic challenges include strengthening the rule of law while addressing corruption and poverty and reviving a sluggish economy.

On Saturday, he promised to cut taxes and raise pensions, while growing the economy by 5 percent this year and cutting inflation to no more than 2.5 percent.