Monday, November 15, 2004

SKOPJE – Prime minister Hari Kostov of Macedonia has resigned from his position as of Monday, November 15. The Macedonian parliament will meet on Thursday to decide whether or not to accept his resignation.

The BBC quoted Kostov, who was appointed last May, to have said that “there is no will for genuine teamwork” within the coalition, and that one of the parties in the current government has been promoting corruption and nepotism. Kostov also claimed that the preoccupation with the rights of Albanian ethnic minority in Macedonia was obstructing economic modernization, according to Reuters. Kostov himself was not a member of any of the coalition’s parties.

Kostov’s resignation was preceded by a referendum organized by the Macedonian opposition, aimed against a decentralisation law which would have given the Albanian ethnic minority in Macedonia additional rights. The referendum was declared null and void due to a low turnout. According to the NOS, some now fear that fights between Albanian guerrillas and the Macedonian army, which came to a halt in 2001, will start again.