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May 19, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Macedonia takes step back from brink as president gives mandate to Social Democrats
All the obstacles to giving the mandate to Zaev have now been removed, the president’s office said in the statement.
Previously, Ivanov refused to grant a mandate to Zaev on the grounds that his acceptance of condi- tions set by the ethnic Albanian parties for sup- porting his government would lead to the destabi- lisation and federalisation of Macedonia.
However, Zaev said that he had sent written guarantees that his new government would preserve the unitary character and sovereignty of the country, according to a video broadcast on local TV stations.
Macedonia has been without a government since the December election. Zaev now says he will propose the new government’s composition to the parliament within 10 days. His Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) and the three ethnic Albanian parties have a majority of 67 MPs in the 120-seat parliament.
Zaev has promised that will reinstate the rule of law in the country and will make institutions work properly. “As a future prime minister I am making commitment the new government will build a civil, unitary and European Macedonia,” Zaev said in the party statement, after he was given the mandate.
He said the focus will be on building a just and legal state, creating conditions for better lives for all citizens, and respect for the multiethnic character of the country. About a quarter of the population is ethnic Albanian. “This day is a new beginning for Macedonia,” Zaev said.
May 17 was a symbolic date for obtaining the mandate, as it is the two-year anniversary of when the SDSM, then in opposition, launched the first huge protest as part of the Colourful Revolu- tion movement to topple the conservative govern- ment led by then prime minister Nikola Gruevski.
Changes at the top
Ivanov is close to the Gruevski’s VMRO-DPMNE party, which has ruled the country since 2006 and was highly reluctant to relinquish its hold on power.
Nikola Todorov, an MP from VMRO, said at a news conference that the party does not believe in Zaev’s guarantees. VMRO also objects that the guarantees were signed only by Zaev and not by the ethnic Albanian parties.
VMRO narrowly won the December election, but failed to form a government with its former part- ner, the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). The party, which won two more seats than the SDSM in December, has obstructed Zaev from forming a new government. The party has been pushing for a new snap parliamen-
tary election to be held at the same time as the planned local elections later this year.
The EU has defined Macedonia as being in state of capture under the rule of the previous govern- ment. Government-run institutions, particularly the courts, and most of the media were under the control of VMRO, which drew huge criticism among international community, experts and the local population.
Gruevski's VMRO-led government has also been criticised for lavish spending in the last years, particularly for the grandiose Skopje 2014 pro- jects, costing over €700mn, that revamped the city with baroque-style facades and erecting a numer- ous monuments and statues in the capital.
Ethnic tensions
Obtaining the mandate was not an easy task for Zaev. The platform adopted on January 7 by the hree ethnic Albanian parties, dubbed the “Tirana