On Saturday 29 July, the main party representing the Albanian minority in North Macedonia, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), announced that ministers from its ranks would resign from the government in order to meet the demands of the opposition and make progress on the country’s EU accession negotiations.
This announcement comes after the main nationalist opposition party, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE) had stated that it would only support the constitutional changes needed to recognise the country’s Bulgarian minority if the DUI left the government.
Sofia had made recognition of the country’s Bulgarian community a sine qua non condition, failing which Bulgaria would not agree to lift its veto on negotiations for North Macedonia’s accession to the EU (see EUROPE 12986/22).
The VMRO-DPMNE also called for new elections to be organised. In a statement issued after the DUI’s announcement, the nationalist opposition party did not react to the question of support for constitutional changes.
The resignation of the DUI ministers will only take effect if the VMRO-DPMNE votes in favour of the constitutional amendments, the DUI stated in a letter delivered to the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Dimitar Kovacevski. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)