Macedonia Poll Victors Open Talks on New Govt

The first round of inter-party talks aimed at forming the new government led by Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski were held at the weekend but were shrouded in secrecy, with both sides remaining silent about what was discussed.

Gruevski’s ruling centre-right VMRO DPMNE beat the opposition Social Democrats at early elections on April 27, while the junior ruling Democratic Union for Integration, DUI, won in the country’s large ethnic Albanian bloc.

Gruevski has been Prime Minister since 2006, while the DUI has been part of the government since the 2008 polls.

The talks are believed to have started by determining the basic principles of the future government and the DUI has not yet put forward some of its potentially problematic demands which may slow the negotiations.

A high-ranking member of the DUI told Balkan Insight under condition of anonymity that at the start of talks, the party reiterated its general demands for the speedy Euro-Atlantic integration of the country as well as its determination “to improve the status of the Albanians in Macedonia”.

But more problematic issues, like the probable DUI demand to take the parliamentary speaker’s position as well as a legal change that the next holder of the role should be allowed to speak in the Albanian language during plenary sessions of parliament, were left for later talks, the source said.

The current parliamentary speaker comes from the ranks of the VMRO DPMNE and the country has never had an ethnic Albanian in the post.

While MPs are allowed to speak in the Albanian language at plenary sessions of parliament, the law bans the speaker from addressing the legislature in any other language than Macedonian.

The source said that the DUI...