Skopje, 10 May 2024 (MIA) — Asked if he would serve another term as Prime Minister given that the DUI-led European Front expected to be part of the future government, Caretaker PM Talat Xhaferi at a press conference Friday said he was focused on his current duties in the caretaker government until a new government was formed, and the composition of the next government, he added, was to be decided "at negotiations between the political subjects who have received mandates in Parliament after the May 8 elections." 

In response to a reporter's question whether DUI was ready to go into opposition, given VMRO-DPMNE's announcements that it would not be forming a government with the European Front, Xhaferi said the question should be addressed to the political party.

"I am the prime minister and I am thinking about my term of office that I have to finish. That is a question for the organs of the party," he said.

Commenting on whether DUI members had carried out a silent boycott in the presidential runoff, the caretaker PM said no one from the party, including their presidential candidate, had ever called or motivated a boycott.

"Individual positions cannot be presented and taken as general attitudes of the subject [DUI], or of the [European] Front," Xhaferi said.

"As a matter of fact," he continued, "in my hometown, the candidate who was elected President received 100 votes, and her opponent and former President received 127 votes."

Speaking about a video published by Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Political System and Inter-Community Relations Artan Grubi that showed him casting only one ballot instead of two, Xhaferi said Grubi was not representing the government or his party and it was his individual choice not to vote for President.

"I myself voted taking both ballots, so his individual position is not a general position you can draw a conclusion from. He may be a minister, but he is an individual in relation to the government," the caretaker PM said.

"That position was individual. It was not the position of the organs of the party or the Front or the Government. Individually, anyone can say what they want to say. That is freedom of thought and expression. When it comes to freedom of thought and expression, you cannot ask to hold anyone responsible," he said.

"You demand freedom on the one hand, and on the other hand, you demand responsibility for that freedom. Well, you can't have both," Xhaferi said. mr/