North Macedonia’s President Stevo Pendarovski nominated former premier Zoran Zaev as the Prime Minister-designate as candidate of the ‘Mozemo’ (We can) coalition which won the majority of the seats in Sobranie (the Parliament).

Zaev has 20 days to form a coalition government since the negotiations on a new parliamentary majority are still ongoing.

He said he was “convinced it will be a stable government with the full four-year mandate and it will continue to lead the country towards the European Union, creating the ‘One Society for All’ concept, free of nationalism and ethnic prejudices.”

Zaev, the leader of the North Macedonian Social-democrats, was the Prime Minister from May 3, 2017, to January 4 this year, when he resigned in a protest against the EU failure to set a date for the start of the accession talks with Skopje.

After the resignation, the country was led by a transitional government and the early vote was held on July 15, with Mozemo winning 46 and the nationalist opposition VMRO DPMNE 44 mandates in the 120-seat Parliament.

The largest Albanian party DUI has 15 deputies, the coalition of the Alliance for Albanians – Alternative won 12, while the Leftist has two MPs and the Democratic Party of Albanians one.