Northern Macedonia Prime Minister calls for snap elections after European Union snub
North Macedonia's Prime Minister Zoran Zaev
North Macedonia's Prime Minister on Saturday called for early elections after the European Union (EU) failed to open membership talks for his Balkan state, which had been the key goal of his administration.
"This is what I'm proposing: organising quick snap elections where you, citizens, will decide the road we are going to take," Zoran Zaev said in a televised address a day after the bitter disappointment from Brussels.
After hours of heated wrangling, EU leaders were thwarted from greenlighting the start of Skopje's accession talks on Friday because of opposition chiefly from France.
"We are victims of the EU's historical mistake," Zaev said in his address, echoing the words of European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and other top officials in Brussels who had fought hard to open the talks and were deeply apologetic.
"I am disappointed and angry and I know that the entire population feels this way," Zaev continued.
He said he would meet with the president and other political leaders on Sunday to discuss the next steps.
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A Social Democrat who came to power in 2017, Zaev staked all of his political capital into putting North Macedonia on a path to the EU.
He had to battle fierce opposition from nationalist forces to change his country's name,which was previously Macedonia,to overcome a row with Greece that had been standing in the way of the country's EU integration.