Macedonian Parliament to Form Gov't Without President's Mandate, Speaker Claims

The new speaker of the Macedonian parliament has claimed that the government in the country can be formed without president's mandate.

BELGRADE (Sputnik) — Talat Dzaferi, the newly elected speaker of the Macedonian parliament, said Friday that the new government might be formed based on the decision of the parliamentary majority without president's mandate.

"I will not persuade anyone, especially, [President Gjorge] Ivanov. My legal obligation is to wait for his decision for 10 days… After May 20 everything will depend on the will of the parliamentary majority," Dzaferi said, as quoted by the MKD news portal.

Dzaferi noted that in accordance with the Macedonian constitution, president should give a mandate to form a government within 10 days after speaker's request.

The political crisis in Macedonia escalated after December 2016 early parliamentary election resulted in Macedonia’s conservative VMRO-DPMNE party and opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) party winning 51 and 49 seats, respectively, thus failing to form a coalition government. The SDSM party leader Zoran Zaev agreed to form a coalition majority with the parties representing ethnic Albanians, while the country's president refused to give him a mandate to form a government.

In an open letter addressed to world leaders, Ivanov justified his position by the fact that the SDSM platform envisaged significant changes to the constitution in favor of Albanian minority, what would undermine the sovereignty of Macedonia.