The parliament in Skopje elected the Social Democrat and his Cabinet late on Monday with a majority of 62 out of 120 votes, the news portal makfax.com.mk reported.

The former deputy finance minister succeeds fellow party member Zoran Zaev, who resigned after the Social Democratic League's (SDSM) poor showing in last October's local elections.

The Cabinet consists of 12 ministers from the SDSM, six from the Albanian minority party Democratic Union for Integration (DUI) and three from Alternativa, another Albanian party.

In his program speech, Kovacevski named strengthening the economy, overcoming the coronavirus pandemic and the energy crisis as well as improving relations with neighbouring Bulgaria as the most urgent goals of his government.

The EU country Bulgaria is currently blocking the start of EU accession negotiations for North Macedonia because of historical political demands.

Next Tuesday, the new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov plans to travel to Skopje. A breakthrough in the matter is not expected, but there could be an improvement in the atmosphere.

Australian Associated Press