Former Prime Minister of Macedonia Nikola Gruevski, who had to step down in January 2016 after the wire-tapping scandal, has been charged by Macedonian President Gjorgje Ivanov to form a new government.
During the elections of December 11, 2016, Gruevski’s VMRO-DPMNE party barely managed to secure more votes than the main opposition party, Zoran Zaev’s Social Democrats. Gruevski’s now has 51 seats in the 120-seat parliament, whereas Zaev has 49.
Any coalition with the support of the majority of parliament will be impossible without the support of the Albanian parties, who together occupy 20 seats in the new parliament. In a deal brokered by the three largest Albanian parties (representing 18 seats), they decided on a common platform that includes changes in the constitution to make Macedonia officially bilingual Albanian–Macedonian.
Such changes had been also proposed by Zaev during the campaign, causing my ethnic Albanian voters to shift their alliance from Ali Ahmeti’s BDI, Gruevski’s coalition party, to the Social Democrats. Considering the strongly anti-Albanian election campaign led by Gruevski and with the Albanian parties united, it remains to be seen whether he will able to form a majority government within the coming weeks.
