Zoran Zaev after four and a half years at the head of the Government he resigned as Prime Minister. The Assembly today confirmed his resignation, which he assessed as a logical step arising from the outcome of the local elections and as an expression of the responsibility taken for the election results.
Zaev, who recently left the leadership position in the ruling SDSM, which he headed since 2013, has been the Prime Minister since May 31, 2017, and won a second term as Prime Minister in the July 15 elections last year.
During his tenure as prime minister, Northern Macedonia became a full member of NATO, but failed to start EU accession talks due to a blockade by Bulgaria. Zaev signed the Strategic Partnership, Friendship and Good Neighbor Agreement with Bulgaria in August 2017, and in June 2018 his government signed the Prespa Agreement with Greece to resolve the long-standing name dispute. Zaev, together with former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, has won the Ewald von Kleist Awards, the Westphalian International Peace Prize 2020, the Hessian Peace Prize 2020 and the Europe Development Award for Best Practice in Promoting Cooperation, Unity, Diversity Inclusion and Positive Thinking. The two leaders were also nominated for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. Recently, Prime Minister Zaev received the 2020 Human Rights Award from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) in Berlin.
From 2003 to 2005, Zoran Zaev was a member of the Macedonian Parliament, after which he ran for mayor of Strumica, a position he held for three consecutive terms, from 2005 to 2016. In 2008 and 2009, the city won the highest national environmental award, while as mayor, Zaev received the Council of Europe Best Practice Award for the country’s first public-private partnership.
He was elected leader of the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) in 2013, after being the party’s vice president between 2006 and 2008. Zaev has been a member of SDSM since 1996.
Zoran Zaev is an economist and has a master’s degree in monetary economics.
His place in SDSM after the recent intra-party elections was taken by Dimitar Kovacevski, who is expected to succeed him as Prime Minister.
Source: MIA
