Skopje, 15 December 2021 (MIA) – Zoran Zaev said Wednesday he will step down as prime minister early next week. After the resignation is approved in Parliament, he added he expects to be succeeded by the new SDSM leader Dimitar Kovachevski at the helm of the government. Earlier, Dimitar Kovachevski took office as SDSM leader after Zoran Zaev handed over his duties at SDSM’s main offices in Skopje. “Consultations with coalition partners are being finalized these days,” Zaev told TV24. Asked about the Bulgarian veto, he said he is still hopeful that the new Bulgarian government will give “positive reactions.” “Since the new Bulgarian government was formed on December 13, one couldn’t expect the General Affairs Council to reach a decision the following day, on December 14. We have provided our responses and I believe all misunderstandings will be settled. For any details, the country is at the disposal, under the leadership of the next prime minister, to discuss them,” stated Zaev. He said he spoke on the phone with the new Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, agreeing that the dispute should be solved in the next six months and that working groups on energy, infrastructure, economy, culture and healthcare should be set up. “They should create a climate to settle the issues,” Zaev noted. He said he expected the holding of the first intergovernmental conference with the EU to be one of the first major achievements of the Dimitar Kovachevski-led government Snap parliamentary elections is not necessary, the outgoing prime minister stated. Regular elections are slated for 2024. “The country has been provided with an expanded parliamentary majority with ambitions to grow in the future… We need to give our people, our economy a 2,5-year period without elections, to allow them to grow and develop uninterrupted,” Zaev said. He stated he expected the new SDSM leader to preserve the values of the party, namely “solidarity, freedom, democracy, equality of the citizens.”