Macedonians still struggle to form new gov't as deadline

With only a few days to go before the Sunday deadline for the formation of a new government set by Macedonia's Constitution, the VMRO-DPMNE party which won most parliamentary seats in the election on Dec. 11 is still struggling to seek a partner to form the government.

Head of VMRO-DPMNE Nikola Gruesvki was mandated on Jan. 9 by President Gjorge Ivanov to form the new government, after his party garnered 51 seats against 49 seats won by the Social Democrats SDSM led by Zoran Zaev.

However, according to the Constitutional Court, if Gruevski cannot manage to form a government, he must return the mandate to President Ivanov, who in turn will give it to the second party with most seats in parliament, SDSM.

Zoran Zaev, leader of the social democratic SDSM party, told reporters on Monday that he was expecting to receive mandate to form the next government.

According to him, his opponent won't be able to form the new government while he stressed that 612,000 citizens in Macedonia voted for change, thus voted for SDSM.

But as none of the parties has the majority of 61 seats needed to form a new government on its own, the choice of the ethnic Albanian party the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), which took 10 seats in the election, becomes crucial.

Both Gruevski and Zaev have held separate meetings with DUI leader Ali Ahmeti, trying to reach an agreement on the creation of new government.

Despite the meetings, there has been no official statement confirming any coalition that would pave the way to the forming of a new government.

Political experts here said that it would be difficult for both parties to form a coalition.

The ethnic Albanian parties have recently formed a joint platform through which they demanded higher representation in state institution but also the usage of Albanian language as Macedonia's second official language.

But VMRO-DPMNE has made it clear that it will make no concession in this regard, while the representatives of DUI have declared this as a prerequisite for starting talks.

Zaev of SDSM, although he got many votes from Albanians and promised to made Albanian language official, has not made any comment on the platform.

However, DUI doesn't have many options, as it can either make an agreement with Gruevski or Zaev.

As the deadline is drawing near, the week will be crucial.

source: Xinhua