Who is Talat Xhaferi, the first Albanian prime minister of North Macedonia?

Talat Xhaferi has been elected the first Albanian prime minister of a technical government in North Macedonia.

He received his mandate on Sunday through the votes of the deputies of the Assembly of Macedonia, where he was voted with 65 votes in favor, three against and no abstentions.

Who is Xhaferi?

Talat Xhaferi started his political career in 2002, where he was elected for the first time as a deputy of the "Democratic Union for Integration" headed by Ali Ahmeti. In addition to the seat of the deputy, in 22 years of political career Talat Xhaferi held several positions in the government of North Macedonia.

He was the deputy minister of defense during the years 2004-2006. He returned to the Skopje government as Minister of Defense for a year from 2013 to 2014. His appointment to the cabinet headed by Nikola Gruevski caused protests from Macedonians because he had been the commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Three years later, he sat in the speaker's chair, marking another important step in the representation of Albanians in the legislature of North Macedonia.

The election of Talat Xhaferi as speaker of the parliament came from the union of the votes of the Albanian parties and the SDSM in the opposition. At that time, in 2017, the placement of an Albanian at the head of the Macedonian legislature caused riots in the parliament.

He would be elected to the same position in 2020.

Born in Gostivar, he studied at the Yugoslav People's Army Infantry Ground Military Academy in Belgrade and Sarajevo. He specialized in command and staff duties at the Military Academy in Skopje. From 1985 to 1991 he was an officer of the Yugoslav Army and from 1992 to 2001 he was an officer of the Army of the Republic of Macedonia.

During the war in North Macedonia in 2001, Xhaferi was at first a senior officer in the Macedonian army, before joining the Kosovo Liberation Army. Talat Xhaferri became the commander of the 116th brigade with the nickname "Commander Forina".

Today, the former commander "Forina" enters the history of the state of North Macedonia as the first Albanian prime minister.