North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev handed his resignation to parliament after the loss of his Social Democratic Party in local elections held in October. Kovacevski is now also positioned to become prime minister, thanks to the narrow majority held by the party in parliament. Zaev served as prime minister from May 2017 to January 2020 and then again since August 2020. Zaev proposed and won a 2018 referendum on changing the country's name to North Macedonia in order to begin EU accession negotiations. However, now Bulgaria is blocking the start of North Macedonia's EU membership negotiations.

Source: The North Africa Journal December 23, 2021 01:58 UTC