Skopje, North Macedonia Prime Minister Zoran Zaev has said that early elections should be held as soon as possible after the European Union (EU) put hold on the start of the country’s accession negotiations the previous day.
“We do not have time to lose. My suggestion is organizing early elections as soon as possible. Elections on which the citizens will come up with decision and confirmation of the path that the country should be moving on. Towards the true path of European values or towards the dark path of division and conflicts,” Zaev said at a press conference on Saturday.
His demand for early elections comes one day after the European Council did not grant start of accession negotiations for EU membership for North Macedonia. The EU will return to the enlargement issues in May next year, Xinhua news agency reported.
“EU did not deliver what was promised to us. We have finished all our obligations… I’m disappointed and angry and I know that all people feel the same. I take the disappointment of my people upon my back and I must say that the European dream of Macedonian people will not be crushed,” Zaev said.
Zaev, who signed the Prespa Agreement for changing the country’s name in order to solve the decades long name issue with Greece for the sake of joining in the EU, said that he was also thinking of resigning but at the end decided that he should not stopped fighting for European future.
He also said that he will present his suggestion for early elections at the meeting of the leaders of the main parliamentarian parties that President Stevo Pendarovski called for, which is scheduled for Sunday.