Bozinovski: The new government will try to restore relations between Skopje and Belgrade

Vladimir Bozinovski, a professor of political science and program director at the Institute for Political Research in Skopje, believes that after the elections in North Macedonia, relations with Serbia will be restored and improved because, as he assesses, during the rule of Minister Bujar Osmani, the relations took an undesirable direction.

The goal of Macedonian policy is to nurture good relations with all neighbors, especially those who do not impose conditions and vetoes, he notes.

"And here we have Serbia and Kosovo. I think the new government will try to establish or restore relations between Skopje and Belgrade as they were. As for Kosovo, I hope they will continue to have relations in the direction of mutual respect and understanding. So, I don't expect relations to worsen with some and improve with others. What is needed is for relations with Kosovo to continue in a similar direction and for relations with Serbia to improve, which, especially during the tenure of Bujar Osmani, somewhat went in an undesirable direction," Bozinovski emphasizes.

He adds that the number of votes won and parliamentary seats are within the expected range before the elections.

"VLEN got 13 seats, as expected, and DUI (Democratic Union for Integration) 19 seats. We still await the final results from the State Election Commission, but I think they will have 19 seats. Although 17 seats for DUI was the variant that we all assumed would happen, the votes of parties from smaller ethnic communities that entered into a coalition with DUI played a role in achieving a better result," Bozinovski says.