On Friday 17 July, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi, congratulated the citizens of Macedonia for having exercised their right to vote in the early parliamentary elections of 15 July despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SDSM could win 46 of the 120 seats in Parliament and the VMRO-DPMNE Conservative Party 44. Only 12,000 votes look to separate the two parties.
“The elections were generally well run amid adjustments in response to the pandemic and the campaign was genuinely competitive, but legal stability was undermined by substantial revisions to the legal framework and subsequent government decrees”, they highlighted in their statement, citing OSCE findings.
They called on all political actors, relevant institutions and stakeholders to continue to work together to implement the recommendations that the OSCE will issue, “well in advance of the next elections”.
Mr Borrell and Mr Várhelyi expressed their expectation that the authorities would continue to respect the country’s EU commitments, to sustain and accelerate the implementation of EU-related reforms, in particular in the field of rule of law, fight against organised crime and corruption, as well as to further strengthen good neighbourly relations. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)